Through the Eyes of Love
by Lalaith Quetzalli
Summary: -AU to Nightingale.- A terrible tragedy left her blind, but instead of being that an end, it became her new beginning. With a family that loved her, with opportunities many could never imagine, and chief of all a chance for a love as strong as the stones and as bright as the stars. Because some things don't have to be seen, just felt… (Can be Read as a Stand Alone).
1. Lost

This fic... first I had no idea where to start, and then I started it and had no idea how I was even going to handle the fic with that start... I like to think it turned out alright though. I've had fics before where Stephen ends in Kamar-Taj early, but never under this circumstances. I'll admit this fic wasn't actually on my list, when I first began planning my 'other incarnations AUs', but after trying for a week straight to write a Sherlock one with that Nightingale as Eurus's twin sister and finding myself absolutely unable to accurately portray a character as complex as Eurus Holmes... I decided I'd rather write well a different fic than ruin that idea. And then I got it into my head: What if Stephen arrived to Kamar-Taj early, and for entirely different reasons? And this was born.

Dreamcast: Bridget Reagan as Joyce (I know her eyes aren't hazel but go with it please), Ashley Green as Donna, Katie McGrath as Helena, Sophie Oda as Sachiko.

Songs: "Catch a Falling Star" as sung by... well, pretty much whoever you may think of (I had Anne Hathaway's sort-of singing in Princess's Diaries in mind while I was writing this) and "I Was Here" as sung by Beyoncé.

This fic is in 3rd person POV. The story is told a bit out of order, chronologically, but bear with me. I kind of like how it turned out. Hope you will too. It has two parts and like has been said before, updates within the same fic will come weekly.

And without more preamble, here we go!

* * *

Through the Eyes of Love

(Alternative Universe to _Nightingale_)

_By: Lalaith Quetzalli _

_A terrible tragedy left her blind, but instead of being that an end, it became her new beginning. With a family that loved her, with opportunities many could never imagine, and chief of all a chance for a love as strong as the stones and as bright as the stars. Because some things don't have to be seen, just felt…_

**Lost**

Not all those who Wander are Lost, and not all those Lost need to be Found.

Sometimes Fate can be cruel, what's one more or one less life lost to the violence in the world? Terrible acts caused by other humans, it's not like she forced them to commit violence, it's all about the humans' free will. But sometimes… sometimes Fate may choose to be merciful and turn a blind eye when Destiny slips through to twist a single thread in the Tapestry. Just one, one less life being lost tragically, one person who would in turn change so many others, until the Tapestry became something entirely different from what Fate once intended. But that was okay, just this once, Destiny would have her chance…

There are those who say there is no such a thing as a happy ending. Some may claim this is so simply because there being an ending automatically makes it not-happy; others that there's no such a thing as an ending, life goes on, and while some moments might be happy, other moments will come and not all will be happy. In any case, what was happening in that moment was certainly an ending, and not many would call it in any way happy…

"You told me once to fight, fight like my life depended on it, because one day it might. And I thought you were absolutely nuts! I wanted no part in any of your wars but you insisted. You said someone had to do it, that we were the only ones who could. That we had the power, and thus it was our responsibility to use it to protect those who didn't. To keep innocents safe from the horrors they cannot begin to imagine. And though I still thought you were absolutely nuts… I also thought you were right, to a point. So I did my best. To learn, to train, to prepare myself for whatever might come… But when the sky opened and real, freaking aliens poured out and into New York, you weren't there! Because it wasn't your problem?!"

Stephen Strange, in his blue and brown sorcerer robes, Cloak of Levitation resting on his shoulders, was arguing hotly with his former Master, now colleague: Karl Mordo, whose own robes were a mix of green and brown, on his feet the Vaulting Boots of Valtorr, the relic that had chosen him, just like the Cloak had Stephen.

"We cannot take on all threats, we'd be pulling ourselves too thin. We're meant to protect this world from magical threats, that's all. Just like there are others meant to fight threats like those aliens you mention…"

"What? The so-called Avengers? Yeah, they did a good job, but that's because the portal was small, the enemy numbers never became unmanageable. What do you think would have happened if the portal had been bigger? If they'd been overrun? Are you really so naive as to believe the chitauri would have left us alone simply because we're sorcerers? That they'd ignore us like you chose to ignore them? Please Karl! I thought you were the clever one here!"

"Are you calling me stupid?!"

"No, but I am calling you willfully blind. It's as if you think that if you deny something long enough that will somehow make it disappear. But what happens the next time aliens appear? Or the one after that? Or after? What happens when the Avengers and the X-Men and whatever other hero team there might be loses the battle? Will you wait until the Earth is ablaze to get involved? Or will you choose to stand back and let the world be destroyed to hold onto your ideas of it not being your problem?!"

Karl had no response and that somehow seemed to take all the wind of Stephen's sails. Instead of continuing his argument the doctor just exhaled and shook his head.

"That's why we cannot stay here anymore." He said more quietly, but still as seriously. "Unlike you, Joy and I acknowledge that we're still part of this world. That we will fight for it if we have to. And if that means we're not a part of the Order anymore… then so be it."

"You would become one of the Lost Ones? Would make your own sister into one?"

"No, because I'm not lost Karl, and neither is Joyce. We're choosing to follow our beliefs. To do right by this world, even if the Order won't. That doesn't make us Lost."

Karl said nothing else. Though he probably knew it wouldn't have mattered much in the end.

To the side Joyce, in her own white robes (that looked more like a dress and less like battle robes) was already standing beside the door; her own relic: Athena's Aegis, on her in the form of a veil that covered her hair and the upper half of her face, and two knapsacks at her feet.

"Whenever you need us, you know how to find us." Stephen said simply in the end before turning away from Karl.

He took both knapsacks upon one shoulder before offering his opposite arm to Joyce. He knew she could handle herself just fine, but he still preferred to do it.

The door opened before them and all sorcerers in the New York Sanctum watched in silence as the two walked out. One silent spell shifting their attires from sorcerer garb into more 'normal' casual clothes just before they stepped out of the building and onto the busy NY street.

It was an end, in a way. Rarely did Sorcerers choose to walk away from the Mystic Order, and never before under such circumstances. Most had no idea what to think about it. Stephen and Joyce weren't choosing to be their enemies, not like Kaecilius and his zealots (still around and seeking to cause trouble), and not like so many before them; but they weren't their allies either. What were they supposed to be then? The Sorcerers had no idea and even their leader, the Sorcerer Supreme had no answers to offer them.

The Ancient One had known from the start, from the moment Stephen Strange and Joyce Byrd first set foot in Kamar-Taj that something was off. He'd always been meant to find his way to them, but not yet, and not as he was then, not while still whole. And she… she was an oddity, the Ancient One had never seen her in her visions, and she'd no idea if that was a good thing, or a bad one. Years later she still didn't know though, she supposed, sooner or later, time would tell.

**xXx**

And if that had been an end, there had been a beginning, or many…

Donna Strange and Joyce Byrd were best friends, had been best friends for as long as they (and all who knew them) could remember. Both bright, vivacious girls with a thirst for life and an optimism that was almost painful to watch. When they were eight Joyce lost her mom in a bank robbery gone wrong; it was so bad some actually thought the girl to be dead herself, when they found her unconscious in a pool of her mother's blood (she'd been a cashier at the bank, and when the robber got nervous due to the police shouting outside, she was the one to pay the price). The only reason the girl was even there was because she was coming down from a cold and the school refused to have her until she was fully recovered.

When Child Services came to take Joyce away (with her mom dead, no father in the picture, no aunts or uncles and grandparents long since dead, she had no one) Donna threw her first ever tantrum. She didn't want to lose her best friend and it didn't matter if others told her they could still call each other. Donna was sure that if Joyce was taken away that day she'd never see the other girl ever again… So Beverly Strange intervened.

She was a good woman, and loved her children very much. She knew her husband had trouble connecting with their eldest, Stephen was a genius academically, but had trouble connecting with people unless they were willing to accept and work around all his quirks. Eugene tried, but he simply couldn't understand Stephen. The whole family also cared for little Joyce, who had had such a difficult life (it wasn't easy, being the child of an unwed, single parent, in a small town of farmers where everyone seemed to be keen on finding something to gossip about). They offered Joyce a home with them, and by the end of the month Joyce was officially the Strange's foster child (they would have adopted her, but she wanted to keep her mother's name, to never forget her, and everyone was supportive of her choice).

Three years later Beverly died. Cancer, none of the doctors could detect it on time. Eugene did what he could but while the girls held onto him, the only parent they'd left (and to Stephen, when he allowed it), Stephen himself didn't allow anyone to give him much comfort. He was angry, that the doctors hadn't discovered the cancer in time, that they lived somewhere where they had no doctors that could have picked up on it… that he'd been spending so much time buried in his studies and in doing his own thing that he hadn't noticed anything either (not that he could have, though he'd no way of knowing that, the kind of cancer Beverly had had wasn't one easily noticed, there was no way anyone could have known; not the doctors, and not him…).

It was hard, the hardest thing any of them had ever done, but eventually the family found the way to move on. All the while holding onto each other the best they could, to the love of their family. Both those present and those gone…

Donna and Joyce were each other's first girlfriend when they were still in high-school. Though it was more about the discovery (of each other and of themselves) than about any romantic love. Donna discovered that she much preferred girls, while she could see boys being handsome, they did not attract her beyond liking looking at them (the one time she kissed one she felt all wrong); Joyce for her part decided that she didn't much care whether the other person was a boy or a girl, she could see attractiveness in both, but she didn't see the point in having anything with people she didn't know and care about. The two found each other attractive, and they cared for each other, but eventually decided that they had known each other too long, too well, they were more family, sisters, than they would be anything else. And while that made the whole having-kissed a bit awkward for a while. They got through it and learned valuable things about themselves and each other. Not the least of which was just how strong they could be, both on their own and together, having faced the hardships of being publicly a couple in a town like their own…

By the time they graduated high-school they were no longer truly together, though they let other people believe they were as it was easier than having people trying to convince them to take the chance to 'make the right decisions', or to 'repent for their sins'. They truly didn't understand how some people could be so fixated in the fact that two girls were dating when there was so much going on in the world, things so much worse… it was ridiculous.

Stephen Strange was Donna's older brother. Six years older and a hell of a genius, for the most part he was never around. By the time the girls got into middle-school Stephen was off in San Francisco for med-school, only home for the summer, and while he was always kind to Joyce, they didn't really have that much in common. They were simply too different. Donna had it easier by virtue of being the cute little sister, didn't matter that she wasn't a genius, Stephen loved her nonetheless, and the two had these bonding moments when Stephen would bring out old puzzle games and Donna would solve them under his gentle guidance. Joyce was always there to cheer her on of course, but puzzles just weren't her thing. She liked music. She had a flute Donna had gifted her for a birthday years ago, and the one thing she'd kept from her mother's was an old piano they'd moved into the old winter-room in the farmhouse. She loved to play it, and Donna would dance as she played, simple, unplanned melodies. Donna would sometimes bring Stephen with her and he would tell them how good they were.

Then there was the accident… Donna and Joyce had just graduated from high-school, Donna having been top of their generation; and while Joyce wasn't a genius, she was good enough. And that wasn't all, they'd both been accepted into Dartmouth, where Donna would be studying medicine (she hadn't yet chosen a specialty but would eventually); while Joyce had decided to study Music and perhaps Nursing to be able to help the siblings (they had this dream of working all together, of always being there for each other). Neither of them could have ever expected what happened that day.

Stephen had promised to go celebrate with Donna, so Joyce made plans with Melissa herself (their other best-friend), not wanting to interrupt the siblings' bonding time. Only something came up regarding Stephen's coming admission into Harvard for his specialty, so Joyce told Donna to join them. It was supposed to be a girls' night, great fun… they had no idea…

**xXx**

Stephen rushed into the ER in Norfolk (the closest city that had an actual, decent hospital) still carrying his overnight bag in one arm and wearing the raincoat he'd been wearing in Cambridge, Massachusetts (he'd been so stressed out he hadn't thought of taking it off after making it to the airport, or while on the plane, not even in Norfolk, where the weather was much different). The moment he'd gotten the call from the hospital his mind had pretty much shut down, nothing beyond 'Donna' 'Joyce' 'car' and 'accident' had registered in his mind. To the point that it took him enough by surprise he actually staggered, his bag falling from his hand, when he saw his sister sitting on one of the beds. Her colorful top and skinny jeans were dirty, ripped in a couple of parts and there was so much red in them Stephen's heart actually skipped a beat. But she was just sitting there, her socked feet swinging (shoes on the floor beside her) and the way she kept playing with the empty paper cup in her hands told him she was extremely nervous.

"Donna…?" He called, hesitant.

"Stephen…?" Donna's eyes widened when she saw him, a blink later she was off the bed and throwing herself into his arms, crying almost hysterically. "Stephen!"

"What…? What happened?" Stephen was at a complete loss. "Are you alright? All the blood…"

"It's not mine." Donna hiccuped. "Joy… she…"

The story came out in stops and starts. They were on their way to the Divots Convention Center for an outdoors concert. Melissa had insisted they take her new truck and they all agreed. They had no idea where the other vehicle even came from. It had been a small, supped-up sports car, the driver had been completely trashed (and not just on alcohol); he'd died on impact, his car completely destroyed; but still he'd managed to hit their truck in such a way… it was awful. Donna didn't remember everything, though she was sure they'd spun several times before ending in the ditch where emergency services found them. Melissa had died on impact. Donna wasn't sure how exactly, nor did she want to. And Joyce…

"She saved my life…" Donna confessed quietly, as if it were some terrible secret. "She… when the truck hit us she just took me and pulled me to her. The truck was old and the seatbelts only held us around our waists, she took advantage of that, pulled me towards her, curling her upper body around mine. Made herself into a shield. And I don't know why! Then there was a lot of glass breaking, and metal bending and I was absolutely terrified and she kept whispering that everything was going to be alright, that we were going to be alright. We sat inside that truck for… for hours! Waiting for the ambulance. She… she was bleeding, and there was nothing I could do to help. She sang to me until she fell unconscious, and then nothing I did would wake her up. And there was nothing I could do!"

She broke into hysterical sobs then. When a doctor finally approached them it was to tell them that Joyce was hanging on but there was nothing they could do for her. Their hospital didn't have the kind of doctors they needed.

It took some doing but eventually they managed to get everything in order so Joyce could be transported to the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha; the best hospital in Neurology and Neurosurgery in less than 100 miles. At some point Stephen had to wonder where his father was, why wasn't he supporting the girls…? It wouldn't be until later that he'd learn his dad's meds (he'd a heart condition) made him sleep so deeply he never heard the phone, had no idea anything had happened until the next morning.

The best doctors available treated Joyce. Stephen even manage to convince them to let him consult, even if he couldn't exactly get any more involved (being family and all), he was still a genius and had a good eye for things. In the end, even the best doctors and all of Stephen's genius had its limit.

"She's blind…" Donna gasped out when learning the news, horrified. "Joy's blind… and it's all… it's all my fault."

"No… it's not." A voice called softly yet strongly.

The siblings spun around abruptly. Neither of them expecting to see none other than Joyce standing right there, at her room's door, holding onto the IV stand. Her beautiful hazel eyes, empty, staring into nothing. Because the problem wasn't in her eyes, but in her head. Joyce had hit her head at some point during all the spinning and crashing of the truck. There had been a lot of internal bleeding, to the point where it was a miracle she'd survived. The doctors had done all they could to get the swelling down, but some damage just was irreversible. According to the neurosurgeon some connections in her brain were just too damaged. Her eyes were technically alright, but a small part of her brain that converted what her eyes 'saw' into information for her mind to process had been permanently affected by all the bleeding. It was not the kind of damage that could be healed, not even by the best doctors.

"It's okay sweetheart…" Following sounds Joyce made her way to Donna and embraced her tightly. "It's not your fault. It was my choice, and I could never regret it."

"You saved my life." Donna mumbled.

"And I would do it again, a thousand times if necessary." Joyce assured her. "No matter the cost. Even when I did it, I knew the risks but I wanted so much to protect you… You're my family Donna, my little sister… I will always take care of you."

"I will take care of you too." Donna promised, brushing her tears away and doing her best to recover her composure.

"I will find a way to make this right." Stephen stated solemnly. "If there is a way to get you back your eyesight I will find it. I promise you Joyce."

Joyce just smiled softly. She knew Stephen would do his best, and even if it didn't work out, she hadn't been lying when she said she'd never regret it. It wasn't that she didn't care for seeing, she did, very much, but Donna was the most precious person in the world to her and Joyce just couldn't imagine not having her in her life. Even if their love wasn't a romantic one, it was still love, the love of sisters. Joyce would do anything for that. Even giving up her sight.

**xXx**

The next decade was a hell of a ride for all three siblings. Without her sight there was not much nursing Joyce could have done but she still studied music and, as it happened, while in college she discovered a previously unknown gift for languages, which she took advantage of as she made a point to learn as many languages as she possibly could. Stephen had gone ahead and become a neurosurgeon, while Donna chose to be a trauma surgeon and while she was pretty much in general surgery she made a point to learn as much of the various specialties as she could (one of Joyce's doctors had admitted at some point that it had been the amount of time that had passed before she could get proper attention that made it so bad for her, if she'd been treated properly right away the damage might not have been so bad, or permanent… so Donna wanted to make sure that none of her patients would ever be in such a position).

Eugene passed away while they were at college and while it hurt, losing the last parental figure any of them had, by then they'd long since grown used to depending on no one but each other. Even if the girls had attended Dartmouth and Stephen Harvard, they each took a week to visit. Also, once Stephen had graduated he made a point to get a job in Hanover and the girls moved out of their dorm-room and into an apartment with him.

All three moved to New York after school. Pooling together the money of their parents' life insurances to buy a flat with rooms and en-suite bathrooms for each of them. Stephen and Donna got jobs in Metro-General (it made things funny when they both happened to be in the ER at the same time and someone called for 'Dr. Strange'…). Joyce for her part worked as an interpreter in of the best legal offices in New York. There it didn't matter that she was blind, as long as she could keep up with what everyone was saying and repeat it in the right language.

Stephen never forgot his promise. Though he'd yet to find a way to restore Joyce's eyesight. And it didn't matter how many times she told him there was no need, that she was content and had learned to live without her eyes, he refused to give up. The girls sometimes feared that he was obsessing too much, that life might end up passing him by if he wasn't careful. And then there was Johnathan Pangborn…

Johnathan Pangborn was a paraplegic patient who sought Stephen, who was hailed as one of the best Neurosurgeons in the country, hoping the doctor would help him walk again. Stephen studied his case for several days before eventually refusing. The chances for anything, even the most innovative and experimental treatments working on someone with his kind of injury were so low Stephen simply didn't see the point. It was practically guaranteed failure, and Stephen didn't deal too well with failure. As was exemplified by the fact that, a decade later, he still kept trying to find a way to restore Joyce's eyesight.

For the most part Stephen would rather avoid anything that he might fail at. Joyce's case was the only exception, because he'd promised her to do something about it and he didn't want to give up. It would feel like giving up on her, and one didn't give up on family…

So Stephen turned Pangborn away and thought nothing about it. Until years later when he happened to see the man not just on his feet, but playing basketball in a park a few blocks away from the siblings' favorite deli (they served some delicious filled croissants). Stephen just could not believe what he was seeing.

It took a while, and in the end Stephen was quite sure the only reason the man told him the truth was because the doctor revealed it wasn't for him but for his sister. Everyone in Metro knew Joy. The young Strange (nevermind that she still kept Byrd as her surname, they looked enough alike, with brown hair so dark it was almost black, though the siblings' eyes were blue-green while Joyce's were hazel) was so sweet and kind… everyone who met her even just once came to love her. She had a boyfriend, a man Stephen had never actually met, called Lukas; though that was probably to be expected with his rather hectic schedule. Donna had only seen him in passing but she reported he was quite handsome (for a man) and she'd warned him about treating their sister right. Donna was dating an ER doctor called Christine Palmer. She and Stephen had had a bit of a fling before she realized that Stephen would never be able to give her the kind of commitment she wanted. It had begun with some drinks and a lot of venting to Donna, and somehow the two ended in bed. It was funny because before Donna, Christine had never considered herself bi, not even bi-curious; not that she never found women attractive, she'd just never been interested in kissing one, or sleeping with them. And yet never, not even for one second, did she regret Donna. Christine couldn't think of a moment when she'd been happier than when she was with Donna.

From the moment Johnathan finished explaining everything about the Mystic Arts, the Order and Kamar-Taj, Stephen's mind was made up. It wasn't like he actually believed in magic, not fully. But he couldn't deny what his eyes were seeing, and that was Johnathan Pangborn standing, walking, even playing basketball! If there was even the slightest chance that the same thing might restore Joyce's sight, he was willing to try it. Stephen was willing to try anything. What took him by surprise was when Joyce put conditions on the trip:

"Only if you promise me this will be it." She stated.

Stephen really wasn't expecting that.

"I know you keep trying, trying so hard, because of the promise you made to me all those years ago." Joyce explained. "That if there was a way to get back my sight you would find it… And I love you for that Stephen, I really do. But this isn't healthy. I don't want you to end up wasting your life on a pointless endeavor…"

"It's not pointless!" Stephen denied vehemently. "You're my sister Joyce, nothing about you could ever be pointless!"

"I know." Joyce reassured him. "What is pointless is trying to force something that might simply not be meant to be." She exhaled. "It was a miracle that Donna and I survived that night, do you realize that? If we had been in any position other than we were the two of us would have died, just like Melissa."

"I know. And I will never stop thanking whatever higher powers there might be, that you survived that tragedy. But that doesn't mean you have to give up…"

"This isn't me giving up. This is me deciding that I'd rather keep my life than let it pass me by while I keep waiting for something that might never happen. And I want the same for you. So I absolve you of your promise. I want you to live for more than just the promise you made to me that day in the hospital hallway. Can you do that, big brother?"

It was hard, so very hard; but much as Stephen might not want to admit it, he knew Joyce was right. So in the end he acquiesced. Kamar-Taj would be their last attempt at getting back Joyce's sight. If that failed… that would be it.

Donna and Christine thought Stephen was beyond insane, but when Joyce mentioned the deal they agreed. They too had noticed how Stephen seemed to be going nuts over that promise and the prospect of him moving on from that seemed to be enough to make them willing to support them on their upcoming trip.

So Stephen filed in for a long overdue vacation. All he said to his colleagues was that he was taking a sabbatical. Traveling for a bit, getting a breather. Everyone knew how hectic his work could be. He wasn't considered one of the best neurosurgeons in the world for nothing (some said that he was the best, others that it was Derek Sheppard, it was still up for debate). Joyce simply turned in her notice, two weeks before they were due to leave. Her boss accepted it, though he also promised that her job would be waiting for her when she got back.

And so, arrangements made, Stephen and Joyce got on a plane bound to Kathmandu, Nepal.

**xXx**

Kamar-Taj was… not what either of them had been expecting. It hadn't been easy. First with all the temples and the like all around, all claiming to have magic, and miraculous cures, and the siblings just knew they were nothing more than show. And then when they were about to give up for the day and head to a hotel a bunch of low-lives tried to mug them. Stephen did his best to fight them, keep them off Joyce, which got complicated when she went into a flashback, like she hadn't since she was about ten! In the end they had to be saved, by a dark-skinned man about the same age as Stephen who introduced himself as Karl Mordo and helped them into a temple… which turned out to be Kamar-Taj…

Things got pretty insane after that. From the so-called Ancient One who looked at Stephen like there was something wrong with him, and at Joyce like she was some freak of nature. Stephen was all for giving up on the whole endeavor after that, not even thinking that it was their last chance. Until Mordo of all people insisted. Stephen didn't even know why he did it, though in the end he was thankful for it. And so Stephen and Joyce stayed and became apprentices of the Mystic Arts.

It was the first time Joyce was better than Stephen at something. Which he pretended not to mind, while Joyce herself found it absolutely hilarious.

"It's because you're thinking too hard about it." Joyce finally told him after yet one more failed attempt on Stephen's part at creating a portal.

"What is that supposed to mean?" He didn't understand.

"Magic is less about knowledge and more about faith." She tried her best to explain. "You cannot open a portal just by waving your hands unless you believe you actually can. That that's what will happen when you move your hands. You heard the Ancient One, and Master Mordo, you have the power, you have even more power than I do in fact. But until you believe that, it just won't work."

"It's not that simple Joy…" He muttered, running a hand through his hair. "You know I'm not a man of faith. Haven't been since mom died."

"But this isn't about believing in a god, or goddess, or any higher power, it's about believing in yourself. Believe that magic exists and that you can use it."

"How do you do it?"

"I don't know I… to me magic is like love, like the love you and Donna have for me. I don't need to see it, don't need to see you, to know it's there, that it exists."

That was quite poetic, and not at all what Stephen had been expecting. Yet somehow it helped. Instead of repeating inside his head that the magic had to work… he thought about love. About his sisters' love, and his mother's (long gone she might be, but Stephen had no doubt that she'd loved him, and if there was such a thing as an afterlife she probably still loved him, loved all of them, from there); he got a vague image of a gorgeous raven-haired woman in mourning clothes, looking at him with a mix of grief and hope (he had no idea what that was, who she was, she was beyond beautiful, almost ethereal, but he was sure he'd never met her, he'd remember meeting someone who looked like that!). So with the thought of all that love in his head he took a deep breath and moved his hand in a perfect circle… orange-red-golden sparks burst from his fingertips as the portal formed for the first time.

It vanished a couple of seconds later, but at least it was something. He could only improve from there. He was sure of that.

He was right indeed, and after finding the key to his power, Stephen improved by leaps and bounds. Not that Joyce didn't. They both proved to be geniuses when it came to magic, moving through lessons at a pace never before seen. So much that some Masters grew worried.

"So what? Now we're too good?" Stephen snorted. "Never heard that before."

Joyce couldn't help herself, she giggled. She'd never had a chance to truly be a genius before (except in languages, but that had been mostly self-study, so she'd never been in a position to have others see her as a genius).

Karl didn't like that, he opened his mouth to retort, but Joyce stepped in before he could say a word. Something they'd discovered since Joyce had found her own magic, she was very good at sensing it. At first it was just the sorcerers. But ever so slowly she was learning to feel the auras in all living things. It had gotten to the point where she no longer needed to use a cane, or hold onto anyone while inside Kamar-Taj. Using that same 'special sense' she could sometimes pick up on a bit of other people's emotions. Only the more intense ones, like when they were very depressed, overjoyed… or about to blow a gasket…

"Stephen means no disrespect." She hurried to reassure the master. "You need to understand Master Mordo that he's always been a genius. And not everyone has been willing to accept that. The way you phrased things… it's like you think there's something wrong with being a genius."

"There is when you're so focused on learning more and more, that you don't give yourself to understand what you're doing, the consequences of the magic you keep calling on." Mordo replied. "The Natural Laws are extremely important and you keep treating them like they are mere suggestions to you! Both of you!"

"Some rules were just made to be broken." Stephen said in a drawl.

"Breaking the Natural laws has consequences! Dire ones! When are you going to understand that?!" Mordo demanded.

"You think we don't know that?" Joyce's mood did such a one eighty, as she suddenly became extremely sober, everyone noticed.

And it was that at some point their argument had called the attention of others: like the Ancient One, her most recent apprentice (who'd just become a Master himself): Wong, and a few others, Masters, apprentices and even initiates.

"You think we're so ignorant, so foolish, that we don't know our actions have consequences?" Joyce asked, though she didn't wait for an answer. "Do you know why I'm blind? You probably know I was in a car accident. Drunk-driver… and with that I mean the other driver, not us. We were on our way to a concert. Donna, Stephen's and mine little sister, and our best-friend: Melissa. She died on impact, the front of the truck twisting in such a way, half her body was crushed." She was shaking, tears falling from unseeing eyes but she refused to stop, she needed to get it off her chest, once and for all. "I knew what was coming. The moment that car hit us and the truck began spinning out of control… I knew it. There were trees on both sides of the road. It was our hitting one of those trees that made the front of the truck twist and collapse towards us. Donna was sitting in the middle and the branches were coming straight at her, at us. I knew I had to protect her, so I held her by the chest and pulled her to me, made myself into as much of a shield as I could. And I knew there would be consequences. There have to be consequences when you keep someone out of death's hands. But I did it anyway. Because I knew that whatever consequences came my way, they would be worth it as long as I could keep my sister. And I was right. I was right…"

She broke into tears then, dropping to her knees. Stephen hurried to her side, holding her tightly against his chest as he couldn't help but remember the pictures he'd seen from the accident. The branches that had gone straight through the cabin, that had pierced the truck's seat, right where Donna would have been if Joyce hadn't pulled her down and towards her lap. Joyce herself managed to avoid a branch that would have injured her arm severely otherwise. But her change in position was what made it so she hit her head on the dashboard when the front of the truck was crushed towards the girls. The truck had also ended so damaged that it took hours for the rescue crew to get them out. It was part of why Joyce ended blind, why she almost didn't make it; Donna certainly wouldn't have if the branches had pierced her; she'd have been left bleeding out for too long in that truck…

It had been years since the accident, a whole decade, Stephen had never known, never even imagined, that Joyce remembered so much from that night. Donna certainly didn't. And all he could do was hold onto the girl he'd called his sister for twenty years, hold on and hope it would somehow be enough…

**xXx**

Joyce had dreams… she'd always had dreams, for as long as she could remember. At first they had been simple, innocuous things. The same kind everyone had, she was sure, but after the accident… that was when things had changed. Joyce remembered sitting there, in the cabin of that truck, holding Donna tightly against her body, covering her as much as she could with her own body, remembered a piercing pain in her head, one that wouldn't abate, and even got worse as time passed. Donna was hysterical, absolutely terrified, and all Joyce could think of to calm her down was music, so she began singing, softly, quietly, the first song that came to mind:

"Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket

Never let it fade away

Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket

Save it for a rainy day"

"For love may come and tap you on the shoulder

Some starless night

Just in case you feel you wanna hold her

You'll have a pocket full of starlight"

It was a rather simple, repetitive song but it served to relax Donna, at least until things got fuzzy for Joyce and she lost consciousness completely.

It was odd because when it happened Joy didn't actually know what had happened exactly. She was still exactly in the same spot she'd been a moment before. Donna was crying again, except more quietly than before, in between sobs muttering the lines to the song to herself, and every so often pausing to call to Joy. And no matter how hard she tried, Joyce just couldn't find the voice to answer her…

"She cannot hear you." Someone finally informed her.

Joyce was so shocked she turned abruptly to the side, looking for the speaker. There she found a woman, or she thought it was a woman, covered completely by a black hooded cloak, a mix of velvet and lace. Except for the porcelain skin that could barely be seen through the edges of the hood and a pair of eyes, of a green so light they looked almost translucent…

"It doesn't happen every day, you know?" The woman commented evenly. "For someone to be able to keep another out of my hands…"

"You're Death…" Joyce gasped.

She was surprised at the revelation, at her own voice, and later on at the realization that Donna hadn't heard her.

"For a value of that." The cloaked woman shrugged her shoulders a bit. "I am the Queen of the Dead. It is my duty to see to the souls of those who have passed from this life, ensure that they know what has happened, that they're ready either to move onto their next life, or into the Other Side, whatever they might choose." She made a pause before adding. "Your friend cannot hear us because we're not really in the same plane as her, not right now."

"Is she going to be alright?" Joyce asked straight out.

"You ask for her welfare before your own…" The Queen was absolutely fascinated by that…

"Donna's my little sister, I need to take care of her. You said I was keeping her out of your hands. Does that mean you came here for her? Or for me?"

"No. What you did worked. Though there will be consequences. I came because I was curious. Wanted to see the person who would try so hard to save another's life…"

"And what have you seen?"

"More than I ever expected."

The admission took Joyce by surprise again. But she was distracted from that when she realized her vision was slowly but surely fading around the edges, as if the world grew darker. 'There will be consequences'… that was what the Queen had said; for a moment Joyce wondered if that meant she was going to die, except she didn't think that was it. She was only half aware of the next words to come out of the Queen's mouth before she lost consciousness entirely:

"The nightingale sings again…"

The next time Joyce woke up she was in a hospital, and the world was dark all around her. The darkness that would be her constant companion from that moment on. The only moment when that darkness cleared, when she saw anything other than the nothingness was in her dreams. She never saw the Queen of the Dead again, but while a part of her couldn't help but miss her, she saw so much else… Peoples and places that seemed to almost have been pulled out of a fairytale, except they felt completely real at the same time. And she somehow knew them all. It was as if she were seeing her life, in another place and another time.

It was fascinating. All the things she got to see, all the things she instinctively knew, as if she were a part of that world as much as of her own… She wasn't sure when exactly she realized the truth about that, the fact that what she was seeing in dreams was her life… or it had been. It was insane, a past-life; though perhaps no more than a magical order hiding in plain sight in the mountains in Nepal…

The memories (because they were memories, not just dreams) got clearer with time, though there were some things she just couldn't grasp. Like her name or her husband's. She did learn one thing, the Queen of Dead, before she was that she had been something else: her daughter…

"Were you ever going to tell me?" Joyce asked the next time they happened to meet (really meet, rather than a dream).

"Not until you remembered." The Queen answered honestly. "It wouldn't have been right. It's in the rules. I… we cannot interfere in the lives of mortals. Of course, such rules don't take into consideration people remembering after… near-death experiences shall we call call them?"

Joyce couldn't help herself, she snorted.

"So I suppose you cannot tell me what my name was back then? Or your father's?"

The Queen just shook her head quietly. It was obvious how much she wanted to, but in the end the need to follow the rules prevailed. Joyce did not complain about that. She was proud of her daughter for doing the right thing, even if it was hard.

"Can you tell me yours?" The mortal girl asked more quietly. "I know you're my daughter. Though you probably don't need a mother at this stage, especially someone as young as me…"

Joyce broke off when the Queen was suddenly embracing her, allowing Joy to press her face against porcelain white, deeply scarred skin, silky raven-black hair falling down her back.

"Nana…" The Queen whispered in an unknown language before switching to English. "You will always be my Mama…"

"Tell me what I can call you." Joyce requested.

"Helena, my name is Helena…"

"Helena… the light of our lives…"

Joyce had no idea where the words came from but they sounded right. Helena teared at them.

"We will be a family again, my light." Joyce assured her, running a hand through the Queen's hair. "I don't know how, or when. But I promise you I'll find a way. We'll all be a family again."

Helena just nodded silently. She trusted her Mama.

**xXx**

In a year Stephen and Joyce learned more magic than most did in a decade. They were considered sorcerers in their own right, and Stephen was quite sure the only reason they weren't considered Masters was because the Ancient One didn't want them to get too cocky. Not that it changed much for them. They weren't interested in any ranks. As soon as they became sorcerers Stephen had focused on finding anything he could on healing magic, on senses. The only thing he could find was something that allowed the sorcerer to use their magic to build a bridge over the injured area. He was sure it was how Pangborn walked, he used magic as a sort-of patch over his injured vertebrae, taking their place. Joyce could do the same, but there were limitations.

"Healing magic is not simple." Wong did his best to explain it to him. "It's actually the most complex branch of magic in existence. Just like you cannot bring someone back from the dead, you cannot fully undo damage. You can coax the tissue to heal faster, by making the cells reproduce faster, though I'm sure you know what that means…"

"Aging." Stephen muttered grimly. "Cellular reproduction is part of aging, if you cause that to happen faster, the person effectively ages. You would be taking as little as minutes or as long as years from their lives to allow them to heal faster. And it still would do nothing for injuries like Pangborn's or Joyce's."

"I'm sorry." Wong truly felt badly, not for Stephen specifically, but for Joyce.

It had gotten around that the only reason the girl was blind was because she'd chosen to save the life of her best-friend, Stephen's little sister (and Joyce's). And while the Ancient One was stumped by the fact that someone had manged to keep a life out of death's hands at all, and without any magic at all… there had still been a sacrifice. Wong knew that even if it were the kind of injury that could be healed, it wouldn't work.

"I think Joy knows…" Stephen murmured after what seemed like forever.

Wong wasn't expecting that.

"I think she's always known. That there was no way for her to recover her sight I mean." The American man clarified. "But she knew that I wasn't ready to hear it, not for all these years. So she let me believe that one day I'd be able to fulfill my promise…"

Then, when he was almost ready to move on, to admit it couldn't be done, she went ahead and absolved him; made him promise that their trip to Kathmandú would be the last try, and then he would give up. Find something else to live for, rather than his promise to her…

And they had found something, both of them, in magic. It wasn't just being sorcerers, but through the magic Joyce had found a way to move through the world without depending on a cane or on others like most blind people did. It was true that it would be different in the city, as she couldn't sense un-living things, but buildings carried traces of the auras of the people who lived in them, the same as cars; and she could learn to handle the rest.

**xXx**

Even as full-fledged Sorcerers Stephen and Joyce still had 'classes' with some of their old masters. Like Wong for fine-tuning control, Joyce specially, as it helped her move without her eyes or any other help; Mordo was the one to teach them combat. He and Stephen clashed a bit regarding Stephen's reticence to fight, and his absolute refusal to kill unless it was absolutely necessary. Joyce was in the same boat, though she chose not to argue with Mordo on it, deciding there was no point. Stephen… he couldn't help but fight, annoyed that Mordo would get so angry at them instead of trying to understand them.

"The same applies to us, you know?" Joyce told him one day. "I mean, yeah, he should be doing more than just trying to push his own beliefs down our throats. He should listen, try to understand why we hold onto the beliefs we do… but all the same, you're not giving him a chance to explain why he's pushing so hard on the matter."

"Neither are you." Stephen sounded almost petulant as he said that.

"No." Joyce could barely swallow her giggle at Stephen's attitude. "But that's because I've accepted that we each have our reasons. He won't change my mind and I won't change his. I don't see a point to fighting him on it. But you do… you want him to understand you, but for that to be fair… communication is a two way street. You need to listen to him as much as he needs to listen to you Stephen."

They made it work, somehow. Stephen still didn't like the idea of fighting wars, but he admitted that they had a responsibility to those who couldn't protect themselves, who couldn't fight, probably weren't even aware of the threats that might be out there. He also managed to make Mordo understand why killing was so wrong to him. He was a doctor… and it was beyond not wanting to fully give up his past (he and Joy exchanged e-mails with Donna and Christine every so often, he knew the hospital still was hoping he'd return, same as the law firm hoped for the same with Joyce); he'd been raised on the idea that he should strive to help people, not hurt them. And it was one thing to use violence to protect others, but he'd never be able to abide the use of violence for violence's sake.

Mordo was very different. Born in a place where violence seemed to never end, where a war seemed to always be fought, where lives were lost for seemingly no reason at all. Even without Mordo saying it directly, it was clear he'd lost someone, that he'd lost everyone; and he chose to fight to make sure he wouldn't lose anybody else. To keep others from feeling the way he did. And that was noble. It was something Stephen and Joyce could understand.

So they trained. They made an effort. Even if they didn't like it much. They became the warriors the Mystic Order needed them to be.

And then Kaecilius, one of the best Sorcerers in the Order, one who many believed would one day take the Ancient One's place as Sorcerer Supreme, left. No one knew what happened exactly. There had been an argument between him and the Ancient One and then he took those who would follow him, and left.

Only Joyce was aware that he'd gone to Stephen, and the doctor turned him down. She wasn't actually present for the conversation, though Stephen did tell her it had taken place. He didn't know what Kaecilius was planning, other than he didn't agree with the Ancient One, thought she was manipulative and hypocritical at best, cruel and the very evil they were supposed to be fighting at worst. Stephen personally thought they were both being stupid, seeking absolutes when there could be none. The world wasn't black and white; things weren't as simple as something being just good or just evil. But they both refused to see that, each in their own way. It was one of the reasons why Stephen didn't get along with them.

Not long after that Stephen and Joyce were assigned to the New York Sanctum, which made them incredibly happy as they could visit their family every so often. They still lived in the Sanctum, trained every day. But the contact with Donna and Christine made them happy. To most sorcerers the whole thing was so strange, because most (if not all) of them had arrived to Kamar-Taj after having lost everything. They hardly ever left it (or whatever Sanctum they were assigned to) because there was nothing for them outside of those walls. But that wasn't the case with Stephen and Joyce. They had family and friends, jobs waiting for them. They had lives beyond the Order, and that was something none of the others could really understand.

**xXx**

Sooner or later, something was going to have to give… their own breaking point took the form of an alien invasion in May of 2013. At first no one knew what was happening, even when the explosions began, and the shouting; the reports of Iron Man, the huge green monster that had been part of the mess in Harlem a year prior, and there were some that even claimed to have seen Captain America! Then they got a frantic call from Donna…

"Donna are you alright?" Joy asked, incredibly worried.

"Those things, whatever they might be, they're trying to get into the ER!" Donna yelled into the phone, something broke loudly in the background. "We need help and we need it now!"

That was all the siblings needed to hear. In seconds they were dressed, relics in place. Stephen had been fascinated from the moment Levi had gone to him, though no more than Joyce herself when the Aegis chose her. The Aegis didn't have a mind of its own like Levi did, but it had still chosen her, and that made Joyce feel honored.

What they weren't expecting was when they reached the Sanctum's foyer, to find the Ancient One, and Mordo, blocking their way.

"What the hell!" Stephen cursed as he stopped in shock. "What are you doing?" He shook his head. "Forget that. Why are you still here instead of out there helping?"

"This isn't a matter for the Mystic Order." the Ancient One stated, voice full of authority.

"Wha…?" Stephen blinked in disbelief. "Are you hearing yourself right now?! Freaking aliens are invading and you say it's not our business?!"

"Stephen!" Joyce cut him off. "Fight later, Donna needs us now."

"This is not something we should get involved in." Mordo insisted.

"Yeah, tell me something Mordo, if it were your family needing your help would you still be standing here?" Stephen demanded hotly.

"That's why this is so wrong." Mordo shook his head. "We Sorcerers should be dedicated to the Order alone..."

"What you mean is that we all should be alone in the world, like the rest of you!" Stephen spat. "Well, we're not. We have family, haven't given up on them, nor will we."

"Stephen!" Joyce cried out again, even as she waved a hand, sling-ring already on her finger.

Stephen followed her through the portal.

**xXx**

No one was waiting for them when the siblings returned, late that night. Which, they both agreed, was probably for the best. They were exhausted and the last thing they needed was yet another pointless confrontation.

The battle itself hadn't lasted that long, it was what came afterwards that took longer. Stephen and Joyce hadn't been in thick of it, accepting that while they might have nearly two years of training under their belts, they were nowhere near ready for an actual battle. So instead they focused on helping where they could. Each of them taking one of the main entrances into Metro-General and making sure no chitauri would be able to enter.

The biggest surprise was perhaps the fact that their tunics alone had been enough to keep anyone from recognizing them. With Joyce perhaps it was understandable. Her white tunic-dress, with Athena's Aegis on her head, covering her like a veil not only was a complete opposite from the skirt-suits and boots she'd favored while working for the law-firm, but they also covered enough of her face to make her pretty much unrecognizable. Stephen was another matter entirely. Yes, his midnight-blue and dark-brown tunic and boots were completely different from his favored suits and medical scrubs, but his face was still perfectly visible and yet no one seemed to notice him at all (except Donna and Christine, but he'd have taken serious offense if they hadn't known it was him), other than to pick up on the fact that he was protecting them all.

The two met up after showering to share some late-night dinner in Stephen's quarters. Even when they finished they just sat there for a while; taking that moment of peace as an opportunity to relax, to process everything they'd been through over the past 12 hours or so.

Joyce didn't notice when she began singing, though Stephen did. He knew it was something she did sometimes, as a way to let her feelings out. So he just sat back and listened silently. He so loved listening to his adopted sister (nevermind that she was never legally adopted) sing:

"I wanna leave my footprints on the sands of time

Know there was something that, meant something that I left behind

When I leave this world, I'll leave no regrets

Leave something to remember, so they won't forget"

"I was here

I lived, I loved

I was here

I did, I've done everything that I wanted

And it was more than I thought it would be

I will leave my mark so everyone will know

I was here"

The song was like nothing Joyce had ever sung before. The themes of her songs usually tended more towards love, soulmates, friendship, family… but what she was singing right then. It was somehow both more and less personal at the same time (impossible as it sounded). It wasn't that the song was just about her, because it wasn't. The lyrics certainly applied to him, they could technically apply to every single living being in the planet… in the universe. But it was about more than that. He couldn't help but feel like she was making a stand, right there and then. And even without talking about it Stephen knew what she was feeling. Much as they might love the Order… they couldn't stay. It might not happen that day, or the next… but sooner or later the tension would finish breaking, and Stephen knew already what their choice was going to be…

"I wanna say I lived each day, until I die

And know that I meant something in somebody's life

The hearts I have touched will be the proof that I leave

That I made a difference, and this world will see"

"I was here

I lived, I loved

I was here

I did, I've done everything that I wanted

And it was more than I thought it would be

I will leave my mark so everyone will know"

"I was here

I lived, I loved

I was here

I did, I've done everything that I wanted

And it was more than I thought it would be

I will leave my mark so everyone will know

I was here"

Unknown to the two siblings they weren't quite as alone as they believed themselves to be. The Ancient One was listening to everything from the hallway (the Sanctum's rooms weren't exactly soundproof, unless someone spelled them to be that way). The Sorceress Supreme hadn't known exactly what she would say to the siblings when she chose to seek them out but in that moment, as she stood in that hall, listening to the young woman sing, she finally understood why she'd never appeared in any of her visions. The fact that Joyce Byrd had never been meant for the Order of the Mystic Arts, there was a world, a whole universe out there waiting for her, things the Ancient One would never truly be able to fathom… and since it was well known that when it came to the Strange siblings, where one went, the other was sure to follow… whatever her plans for Stephen, they were doomed to failure from the start, and it was about time she accepted that.

"I just want them to know

That I gave my all, did my best

Brought someone some happiness

Left this world a little better just because

I was here"

"I was here

I lived, I loved

I was here

I did, I've done everything that I wanted

And it was more than I thought it would be

I wanna leave my mark so everyone will know"

"I was here

I lived (I lived), I loved

I was here

I did (I did), I've done

I was here

I lived (I lived), I loved (I loved)

I was here (oh)

I did, I've done

I was here"

**xXx**

The siblings managed to avoid the confrontation for nearly a whole week. Mostly by keeping away. Going into the city every day and helping where they could. For the most part they did it as civilians, Stephen aiding the volunteering doctors, while Joyce had joined one of the rescue crews and served as an interpreter with the immigrants who needed help. They knew that sooner or later they'd have to face Mordo and the Ancient One, and that things were likely to go very, very wrong. They couldn't have imagined how bad they were going to get…

"You disobeyed a direct order the moment you left!" Mordo roared at them at one point.

"Disobeyed… what are we prisoners now?!" Stephen demanded hotly.

"That's not what I said…" Mordo began.

"But it's what you implied." Stephen retorted. "Are we supposed to ask your permission now before doing anything? Like we're unruly children who've been grounded by their parents. That's ridiculous! We will not stand for it."

"You will not stand for it?" Mordo's voice gained an edge, he'd lost his patience completely, what he didn't realize, was that so had Stephen.

"You told me once to fight, fight like my life depended on it, because one day it might…"

Joyce never said a word. She knew that the time had come. So she left quietly to pick up the bags they'd packed the day after the invasion and then returned just in time for the end. And it was the end; the end and, at the same time, a new beginning.

* * *

So... we end where we began, sort of. Though of course we're nowhere near the end of this yet. We'll see how it goes.

As always full-sized poster/cover and set of wallpapers can be found in DA, I go by Princess-Lalaith there.

Now, a message that is mainly meant to my Menel readers. That series is technically over, for a variety of reasons, but recently the muse has been tickling my mind. Now I bring this to you to help me decide. I could leave the series as it is, ending it with the aftermath of the conflict against Odin. Or I could add one more part, which would go into (some of) the things that came after I finished writing that series. Thing you need to understand beforehand: I'm not changing pairings, the ones that were formed in that series are staying, all of them (like Clint being with Darcy, Skye with Phil, etc.), same with the way some families are (like Darcy being Tony's daughter, Skye being Loki's); Age of Ultron will have never happened (though Vision will be introduced, in a different manner), nor will have any of Agents of SHIELD after the end of the first season (though I might include some of the characters). Doctor Strange, Black Panther, Ant-Man and Guardians of the Galaxy will have all happened in the background, unchanged but for details (I'm open to suggestions both on possible changes and pairings). The fic itself would go mainly into some of the things mentioned in Civil War (though with no CW in the end, promise) and finally my own version of the Infinity War, with the MCUs version of Thanos and the Infinity Stones, rather than the one I conceived for the Nightingale-verse. Also, I could even include the Defenders, haven't in the Nightingale-verse because I hadn't watched those series until recently, but I could include them in the other fic. So... if anyone's interested, please let me know.


	2. Found

Here we go! The second and last part of this particular AU. Things get a bit insane, but you already know that when I'm involved that's a given, yes? Like in other AUs, I wanted to do something different. And what can be more different than Stephen joining and then leaving the Mystic Order? And then... well, you'll see!

Songs for this chapter: "Overcome" as sung by Within Temptation and "Through the Eyes of Love" as song by Melissa Manchester, it's the theme for Ice Castles. (you need, and I stress NEED, to listen to this song. Particularly, if you can manage, listen to it when Joyce performs it in the chapter, this song is half of the reason this AU was written! On a more personal front, it was also the song of my parents' first dance at their wedding so... I love the song, and the movie and highly recommend them! The original versions mainly).

* * *

**Found**

Sometimes it's not about the Search, but about Seeing what's always been there.

Stephen and Joyce never planned to become Avengers it just… kind of happened. They weren't that surprised when they got to their flat one day to find an African-American man with an eye-patch and a black-leather duster, along with the two less-known members of the Avengers.

"Doctors Strange…" The man called the moment they all entered the room. "You may not have realized it, but by your actions the other day, you've chosen to get involved into things much bigger than yourselves."

It looked like Stephen really wanted to snort, but a touch on his ankle from Joyce held him back. The man introduced himself as Nick Fury and went into a long and very twisting speech that, among other things, kept mentioning things like 'world security', SHIELD, aliens, and the Avengers Initiative.

It actually took a second for those present (the three siblings, as Christine had a shift that night) to realize that Fury was focusing completely on Stephen and Donna, pretty much ignoring Joyce entirely. It made Donna laugh, long and loud, enough that Fury interrupted his own speech.

"You done yet?" Stephen asked in a drawl.

"What you laughing at?" The archer-Avenger demanded, he clearly didn't like not knowing what Donna was laughing about.

"You… you think I'm the sorceress!" Donna managed to say before giggling hysterically again.

"Of course they think you're the sorceress," Joyce saw in a drawl, making a point to cross the room without her cane (she still carried it on the streets so as not to stand out), turning her unseeing eyes to each of them in turn before taking a seat in the island. "I'm blind and thus crippled as far as they're concerned."

The agents actually had to do a double-take at that.

"You are the sorceress?" The red-haired one asked, her disbelief barely hidden behind stoicism.

For all answer Joyce raised a hand, twisting her wrist in a very specific motion. A water bottle shot off the kitchen counter and straight into her hand, which closed around it automatically.

"Any more pointless questions?" She inquired evenly after taking a drink.

It was almost ironic, because while in the Order Stephen had taken to being the confrontational one. Always fighting for his position, his beliefs; while Joyce saw no point, it wouldn't change what the other's thought. But in that moment, it was the other way around. And it wasn't because of the way the agents had just dismissed her outright. She actually found it funny, when people underestimated her simply for being blind (and yeah, maybe most blind people would be limited because of that, but she wasn't one such person). No, truth was that there was something about the agents that just rubbed her the wrong way, and she had no idea why.

In the end Fury finished his speech. Stephen waited for Joyce to say something but she just waved her hand, wordlessly giving him permission to speak for both of them.

"We will help." Stephen announced stoically. "But only when necessary. We owe you nothing Mr. Fury, not to you, and not to your team of would-be heroes. Also, we have responsibilities, me to my patients, and Joyce to her own clients. We will not be playing toy-soldiers whenever you feel like it. That's our only offer, you take it or leave it."

He took it. Doing his best to make a show of how 'understanding' he was being. Truth was that Fury just couldn't force them to dance to his tune, same as he could not force Tony Stark. They were too public figures, too well-known in the right circles for SHIELD to pressure them, for any of their usual threats to apply. And they all knew that.

Of course that was on Fury's front. Next time they attended a gala of the Maria Stark Foundation (the Strange siblings were always invited, and Donna always took Christine as her plus one; while Stephen and Joyce tended to go stag, the first because he'd never take his one-night stands to such events, and the latter because she hadn't been able to convince her boyfriend to go with her yet) Tony Stark sought them out. He had with him, in his phone, some pictures and video-clips, mostly from traffic cams, showing them fighting to keep the chitauri out of the hospital the day of the invasion.

"Now don't take me wrong." He began talking the moment he knew he had the siblings' whole attention. "I'm not here to blackmail you or anything, have no need to make money like that! And usually magic is a no-no for me. But I'm curious."

"About what exactly?" Donna asked, intrigued.

It was a very different approach from the one Fury and his Agents had used. Also, she liked that the billionaire hadn't dismissed her sister straight out. In fact, and while he hadn't said anything about it, Donna was almost sure that he knew Joyce was the veiled woman.

"How does it work?" Stark finally asked. "I mean, Point Break told us his brother was a sorcerer, but aside from really nifty illusions and his freaky blue glowing-stick… well, there was really not much to see. But you… you're interesting! And I need to know how it works!"

"Magic." Joyce deadpanned.

"No, no, no… there's no such a thing as magic, because magic is only science we cannot fully explain yet." Tony insisted.

Joyce rolled his eyes but Stephen, he just exhaled. Because he understood where the man was coming from. It was part of why he'd had such a hard time learning magic himself, because he kept trying to see it as science, and it wasn't, at all. It wasn't just that magic could bend the rules of physics, it downright destroyed them, shattered them, or perhaps it'd be better to say it ignored them all-together.

"Magic is magic, and science is science." He finally said out-loud.

"What…?" That took Tony by surprise.

"If you want this…" He waved his hand in a vague motion. "Whatever this is supposed to be. That is the first thing you need to understand, to accept. Magic is magic and science is science. They are not the same. No matter how much we might try to convince ourselves otherwise."

Donna couldn't be a sorceress for that very reason. As hard as it might have been for Stephen to accept and even embrace his new reality, Donna simply refused to deal with it. Then again, she was happy as a doctor and saw no need for magic in her life (beyond what her siblings already brought on). While Christine tended to just pretend it wasn't happening at all. She accepted that Stephen and Joyce had changed, and was just thankful she didn't have to deal with any of it herself (good thing she was dating Donna and not Stephen…); she could admire what the siblings did, but she couldn't imagine having to deal with it directly.

"Magic is magic and science is science." Stark finally nodded.

There was a stubborn expression in his eyes. Like he was saying the words but didn't fully believe them, not yet. But that was okay, they'd get there. They had time.

**xXx**

Joyce's dreams shifted after she and Stephen left the NY Sanctum, and intensified once they began meeting with the Avengers. Until then it'd all been limited to a little less than a century, her life as a Ljósálfar, a princess of two Realms (though the exact names of most people and places still eluded her). She knew she'd died, had even seen enough of it to confirm it, though not enough to traumatize her too much. But her dreams had never gone beyond that… until then. Suddenly she began seeing other things, other places. She saw a funeral (her funeral, though it took her a while to fully grasp that fact), she saw her beloved go insane with grief, the way he became pretty much self-destructive, seeking death as a way to join her… it broke her heart. And then when he was made to forget her, everyone forgot her. But the worst part was that her beloved still grieved her, only he no longer knew what made him feel like that, and there was no one to comfort him, and it only seemed to make things all the worse! More than once Joyce woke up feeling like she wanted to scream, to wail in despair at everything her match had gone through. And much as she wanted to convince Helena to tell her the name, to help her find him so they might both help him. She knew it just wasn't possible. It went against the 'natural laws', if they were to meet it had to be without her forcing the meeting.

So Joyce did her best to control herself. Focused on her work as an interpreter, and on the burgeoning friendships with some of the Avengers. At first their meetings were sporadic, they would be invited to lunch or to some bonding activity; to visit the Tower, where Tony would then ask the two of them to do all kinds of spells while he did his best to study them and what they were doing in any way he could think about it. Stephen tended to run out of patience rather quickly, but Joyce usually took pity on him and did as asked. She just liked the almost childlike joy Tony seemed to derive from the whole thing. Also, SI had a new branch: medical, and along with some prosthesis Tony and Bruce (Dr. Bruce Banner, the Hulk) had created, they had a new project. It had been Tony's idea and he'd convinced Stephen to help: neural implant, it began as something that might help better control the prosthetic, and they were branching out, trying to create something that might help those with severe neural damage. Donna and Christine had even agreed to consult on the project (though they still had full-time jobs, unlike Stephen and Joyce who, since their return, were mostly working on a case-by-case basis, so as to be available in case of an emergency).

They didn't really go on many missions with the Avengers, there was hardly ever any need. The Convergence was shocking, but still not something they got involved with. No one but Thor and some friends of his got involved with that one.

Thor was probably the only Avenger the Stranges hadn't really met, not until a few weeks after the mess in London, when he dropped by the Tower on a day when Tony had invited them over. The blonde arrived and straight away began waxing lyrical about his great quest, and the ways his 'Lady Jane' and their friends had helped him save the world, how the 'Lady Darcy' had saved his mother during an attack in Asgard… and Joyce suddenly wasn't hearing anymore. Completely lost inside her own head.

She was so lost she didn't hear others calling to her, didn't see her siblings crowd her, realizing what was going on. Didn't see Donna pretty much bully Tony until he lead them to the music room. Her siblings knew that when she was that bad-off, so completely blocked she couldn't even string a normal sentence… that was when she needed music the most. Because when she failed to find the right words for normal sentences, that was when she sang.

The Avengers and assorted friends followed, some confused, others intrigued by what was going on, and why they were all hurrying to a piano instead of calling a doctor (then again, the Stranges were both doctors so…).

Stephen helped Joyce sit on the piano bench, placed her hands over the ivory keys and, very carefully, pressed one.

Joyce blinked. She wasn't back to reality, not fully, not yet. But she knew there was a piano. She knew she was being given the chance to 'let it all out' in the best way she knew how so, ever so slowly she tried a few keys, seeking the right tune and, when she had it, she took a deep breath, focusing in her dreams, her beloved, all the memories and the visions that had been taking over her dreams for so long… she let it all out, letting her emotions become words, shape a new song:

"Where are the heroes

In my time of need

Is my cry not loud enough

Or have they gone all numb"

"They just stand and stare

Out of the rain

Thinking but not acting

That they're not to blame"

"Falling and crawling

A fight to stand up

Memory still haunts me

In the dead of night"

"Over and over

I felt so small

But one day I'll be stronger

And you better watch out"

"I will overcome

Your violence their silence

Although,

It can't be undone

I will overcome

Knowing that I'm not the only one

I will overcome

It's the only way to carry on"

"Where are the saviors

Afraid of the toll

Sorry do my nine inch nails

Slash your soul"

"Such heroes

Throwing stones

Straight at the one

Who is standing alone"

"Twisting and turning

It's always the same

Truth is never honest

When you're to blame"

"Pushing and pulling

Never give in

One day I wish

You'll see you're not so beautiful within"

"I will overcome

Your violence your silence

Although,

It can't be undone

I will overcome

Knowing that I'm not the only one

I will overcome

It's the only way to carry on"

"Run and run

Run and run"

"I will overcome

Their violence your silence

Although,

It can't be undone

I will overcome

Knowing that I'm not the only one

I will overcome

It's the only way to carry on

I will overcome"

When the song came to an end, following a long note, silence extended for several seconds as those around seemed to be trying very hard to come to terms with what had just happened; not an easy thing to do when most of them hadn't the slightest idea of what had just happened.

"Loki…" Thor gasped, breathless without any apparent reason, before turning and leaving the room, half-rushing, half-stumbling.

"What did she just do to us?" Tony demanded, sounding equally breathless as he rested against a wall (so as to keep himself from falling down).

"Was that magic?" Natasha Romanoff demanded, visibly shaken herself though she was doing her best to conceal that fact.

"It is, though not in the way you're probably thinking." Stephen nodded as he rubbed Joyce's back in a comforting manner. "Sometimes Joyce has trouble expressing herself, finding the right words to…"

"Yeah well… she seemed to have no trouble just now!" Clint Barton interrupted.

"Sometimes she has trouble finding the right words to say, to talk, the way we all do." Stephen ignored him, focusing on explaining. "When that happens, she sings. Yes, there is some magic involved, but it's not something hurtful. She's not manipulating you either. What she does is to… project. Her thoughts, her feelings, through her song. If you empathize with what she's singing, or if it's in any way connected to you, you can feel a sort-of resonance. But that's about it."

"I think this was about her dreams again." Donna murmured quietly, mostly to her brother.

"Yeah, I do too." Stephen agreed, then something else seemed to occur to him.

Of course they knew about the dreams, or at the very least, they knew they existed, even if they didn't really know what they were about. The most Joy had ever talked about them was to say that she'd tell them all about them one day, when the time was right, and they cared and respected her enough not to press when she clearly wasn't ready yet to talk about it.

**xXx**

No one knew that Thor had taken off that day, immediately following Joyce's song until days later. Tony had convinced Stephen, Donna and Christine to follow him into his workshop to work on improving the plans for the neural implants, leaving Joyce on her own in the penthouse, when none other than Thor approached her…

"Lady Byrd?" He called, doing his best to modulate his voice.

The other Avengers had explained to him that she was blind, and while her magic allowed her to sense people somewhat, it was only polite not to scare her by getting too close or touching her without announcing themselves first. Also, by that point the Lady Darcy had instructed him on what she called 'inside voice', so that helped too.

"You may call me Joyce, Thor." She murmured, turning towards him.

She had a tablet in her hands, Tony's 'blind-tablet' prototype, with buttons that were marked in braille, and the option to either have a mechanical voice read out things to you, or an area that would shift, forming braille letters as needed. The braille was good, but the change either went too fast or too slow, which could frustrate her, and the voice was inconvenient when around other people, or when it would be a bad idea for her to be using earbuds. She admired Tony for trying to make his technology available for everyone, but just wasn't sure it would work this time.

She put the table down though, when the Aesir approached her. She'd sensed him coming. His aura was too different from baseline humans, she couldn't not notice him. Though she was still thankful that he called to her, and did so in a normal tone of voice. She wasn't sure if it was her blindness, or something else entirely, but she had very acute hearing, and it could be troublesome to deal with people who tended to be loud, like Thor was when first arriving to the tower…

"Lady Joyce," He nodded, though he couldn't see it. "There is something I would like to inquire to you about."

"What is it?" She asked, curious about what might be making Thor so serious.

"The song you sang the other day, my lady, what made you do it?" He inquired.

"What makes you ask?" She inquired in return, confused. Then something occurred to her. "I didn't hurt you, did I? I've been told that my emotions can be a bit… intense. And there have been times when I project more than I ever intended. I don't know how you, how someone from another Realm might react and…"

"No my lady, you didn't hurt me." Thor hurried to reassure her. "You… did me a service I could have never expected."

"I don't understand." She admitted.

"Your words… your song… it made me see something I had failed to notice before."

She was about to repeat how she didn't understand, when a new aura distracted her completely. She knew that aura, even if she hadn't sensed it in just over two years…

"Lukas…?" She called, unsure.

Joyce couldn't see it, but Thor's eyes widened as he turned towards the one who'd just entered the penthouse, his brother Loki. His eyes turned hard as a part of his mind began conjuring the worst possibilities… and then another part reminded him of the lady's song. So he forced himself to take things calmly.

"How do you know him, my lady?" He inquired.

"He's my boyfriend." She answered promptly, then, more unsure, she added. "Or he used to be, I haven't seen him in two years."

"My lady… I…" Thor was at a loss, had no idea how to begin to explain anything.

"I know who he is, Thor." Joyce saved him.

That one took even Loki by surprise. And Thor was beginning to suspect that the lady could sense more than just auras, judging by the way she hurried to reassure them, especially Loki.

"Even before I became a sorceress I sometimes just… knew things." She did her best to explain. "I had these… feelings. Instincts I guess. I always knew that Lukas wasn't human, at all. I also suspected there was a reason why he would never be around Stephen, or Donna, why he never seemed to be free to be my plus one for all the galas we were invited to. It hurt, but I accepted it as part of who he was. I love him enough…"

It happened from one moment to the next. Suddenly Loki was on his knees in front of Joyce (who had never moved from the couch), he took her hands in his, kissing the back of them tenderly before speaking in the most honest, most intense tone Thor had ever heard.

"I don't deserve you." There was no hesitation in him. "The stars gave me such a blessing when they put you in my path, but truth is I don't deserve you. I never did. From the day we met… I've been waiting for the day when you would see that. When you'd realize you are so much better than I could ever be, and you deserve someone just as good. After New York… how could I face you? Even if you didn't know…"

"I know." She cut him off, then clarified. "I heard you, during the invasion. I was guarding one of the doors into Metro-General and I heard you. I knew it was you because I could sense you but… but you felt wrong… somehow, like there was something on you, some kind of shadow that didn't belong there."

"Oh my lady…" Thor gasped. "You knew even then something that's taken me two years just to even contemplate."

"It wasn't you, was it?" Joyce asked simply unseeing eyes still on Loki.

"How…?" Loki just couldn't understand… what made her still believe in him? After everything? How could she? And why?

"It never felt right." She explained simply. "The kind of man you are." She sighed. "You looked at me, and instead of seeing a crippled little girl trying to fit in a world that was never made for her, you saw me, just Joyce. You saw beyond my disability, beyond what I might or might not be able to do. And you believed in me. You believed that I could make a life as an interpreter, that I could go to the offices of the top law firm in New York and land my dream-job even though I had such a disadvantage."

"You're a genius." Loki said immediately, not unlike what he'd said and done all those years before. "Always have been. Besides, you need your ears and your mouth, not your eyes, to be an interpreter, really."

"You believed in me." Joyce agreed. "So how could I not believe in you? If you were the kind of man to bring an alien army to conquer Earth you would have never befriended me, much less dated me. It's not like I had anything to offer regarding that particular goal."

"It was never about that." Loki hurried to reassure her.

"Of course not." She'd never doubted it. "Because that was never your goal."

Loki couldn't help himself, he chuckled, a stray tear slipping from his lashes and landing on their joint hands. Oh how he'd missed her! And he didn't need to say a word, even without that, or without seeing a thing, she still knew.

"Really, then what was the goal then?" Another voice demanded abruptly.

Joy had been so distracted even she hadn't noticed when Tony arrived with her siblings (her future sister-in-law included), and the rest of the Avengers. Apparently it was time for dinner…

"Giving you a chance." Loki answered.

He tried to put distance between him and Joy, not wanting someone to wrongfully accuse her of anything, but she refused to let him go, going as far as standing with him, holding onto his hands tenaciously. She'd lost him once, she wouldn't lose him again.

"A chance…?" Stephen asked. "To win?"

He could see the two standing there, and he didn't need anyone to explain that the one beside his sister was none other than Lukas. He'd no idea how exactly her sister had been dating an alien and no one had known. Then again, that might be why he was hardly ever around when he and Donna were… Still, he knew Joyce enough to believe she wasn't the kind to date a psycho, which meant there had to be more to Loki than the bastard who lead an alien army into NY in order to conquer the planet. But what? He'd a feeling he wasn't going to like it, none of them would.

"To survive." Thor announced grimly.

Yeah, Stephen had known they were not going to like it. And much as the Avengers might hate to accept it, he believed it was right. Great powers they might have, but they hadn't really been a team, not then. And six people against an army and the man said to be the best sorcerer in all the realms? It should have been impossible, yet somehow the Avengers hadn't just won, but the victory had been decisive enough that there had been no more attempts since (though no one doubted that it would happen, some day, someone with that kind of army at his disposal didn't just give up).

It was then that it all came out. From Thor's near-coronation, Loki finding out the truth about his parentage and his adoption, the mess that followed, all the way to the battle and Loki falling off the Bifrost. And then meeting Thanos in the abyss, the chitauri, the staff with the Mind Gem.

"Mind Gem?" Stephen inquired, he didn't like how it sounded.

And then came the story about the Infinity Stones, what they did, their origins, and how Thanos desired to gather them all. Yeah, Stephen kept finding things he didn't like.

"I need to talk to Fury." Tony announced. "If that thing is that dangerous then SHIELD shouldn't have it. The last thing we need is a repeat of the experiments on the Tesseract."

Everyone agreed with that wholeheartedly. Of course Fury was never available when they needed him, and even when they finally found him it wouldn't be that easy to get him to cooperate. It would take a while to settle that.

Learning that Loki had been manipulated during the whole disaster, as much as he'd manipulated Barton and Selvig, helped a great deal into getting him to accept the sorcerer.

After dinner, Loki and Joyce finally got a moment alone, out on the viewing deck. Everyone was inside, and a few were probably keeping an eye on them, but they had as much privacy as they were likely to get, and it was enough.

"Thank you, for believing in me." He whispered quietly, cradling her hands between his and kissing her knuckles

"I've always believed in you, and I always will." She hesitated just for a fraction of a second just before raising a hand to hold his face, to find his lips and kiss him, the lightest, softest of kisses, before whispering against his mouth one single word: "Fintalëharyon…"

It was hard to tell when exactly she had known, for sure. Though a part of her believed that at her core she must have known all along. She was faithful and not the kind to date one man while knowing she was meant for another. Still, it wasn't something she thought too hard about, not until after the battle of NY, when he was no longer around… and then when her dreams began showing her what had been of her beloved after the death of her past life. She knew that, given the chance, she'd never let him go again.

The word worked exactly like she'd hoped (which was a good thing because other than that, and possibly singing herself hoarse, she'd had no idea what to do to 'wake him up').

"A'maelamin…" He breathed out, so much feeling inside him.

And then he kissed her… and it was nothing like the kiss they'd shared less than a minute before. Before it had been a peck, a hint of a dream, perhaps even a hope for a future… in that moment, it was the present, the past, the future… it was everything. A searing kiss that touched into their very cores and, as they unconsciously poured their magic through it, their souls touched. The two were speaking, words spilling from their lips before they were fully aware of what was going on:

"I promise you that from this day on, you will be my only one. I shall look at no other the way I look at you, I shall think of no other the way I think about you, I shall talk to no other the way I talk to you, I shall desire no other the way I desire you, and I shall with no other the way I lay with you. I shall be with no other for you are now and forever shall be my one and only; my friend, my lover, my partner, my match…"

Joyce knew they'd have a hell of a lot to explain once they went back inside. Especially to her family. She didn't want them to believe that she didn't trust them. It was never about that. It was just… they were barely coping with the magic, there was a reason Donna couldn't be a sorceress, she just refused to fully believe in it, despite both her siblings being sorcerers themselves. How was she supposed to explain to them that she was the reincarnation of Princess Tinúviel, from Alfheim and Asgard, who'd given up the throne of the Ljósálfar to marry the second prince of the Aesir, her One True Love? Who'd married him, given him a daughter (Helena, the light of their lives), who'd died at the hands of an insane, vengeful Enchantress, while heavily pregnant with their second child (who was lost to them, shortly before Tinúviel lost her own life).

"You look nervous…" Loki murmured after a few minutes.

"How am I going to explain all this to my siblings?" Joyce asked, a part of her wanted to run a hand through her hair (a nervous tick all three siblings shared), but the other part refused to let go of her match even for a second.

"I don't really know." Loki admitted quietly. "I don't know how to explain it to Thor, and at least things like matches should be easier to accept for him." He shook his head, forcing himself to focus on what was really important, the woman before him. "We'll find a way. And we'll do it together. From this moment all that will be all that really matters. You and I being together."

Joyce nodded, in complete agreement with that.

As it happened, it was easier to get the Stranges to accept the truth than anyone could have ever expected. Joyce and Loki went through the whole story, to get a response that amounted basically to an 'ok' from both Stephen and Donna.

"That's all?" It was clear Tony didn't buy it.

"That's it." Stephen agreed wholeheartedly.

"How?" Tony demanded. "No, I mean, really. I've been dealing with the shit-show that are heroes and monsters, and aliens and freaking magic for years now, and you cannot tell me you can hear all that and just be okay with it! Not even if you're Harry-fucking-Potter!"

"It's not like that." Donna intervened, trying her best to keep her cool. "And it has nothing to do with the magic. I mean, both my siblings are sorcerers and I think the whole thing is absolutely crazy. It's… Joyce is my sister, she's our sister. Things like other worlds, past-lives, death and reincarnation, soulmates… they might all be beyond me. I might not have believed in them just yesterday. But today she's the one telling me they're all real, that she knows because she's been through it all. And because she's my sister I will believe her. I may not know Loki, even as Lukas I barely caught sight of him less than a handful of times; but she's now telling me he's her match. That he was her husband a lifetime ago, and will be so again. And because she's the one saying it, and I trust her, I believe her. And I'll welcome Loki into my family and he'll be my brother." She smiled beatifically. "So you see Tony, we really can hear all that and be perfectly okay with it."

Tony had no reply for that. Then Donna turned towards Loki and surprised them all again.

"I know you said those words were your wedding vows and all that, but there's no way you're depriving my sister of a wedding, you hear me?" She demanded of the Asgardian. "I've been planning my sister's wedding since we were both little girls…"

"I would never dream of depriving her, or you, of anything." Loki assured her.

No one was quite sure how they'd gotten to that, but suddenly they were all preparing a wedding.

**xXx**

Joyce Byrd married Lukas Hvedrungr on June of 2015 in a private ceremony in Stark's penthouse in Avengers Tower. Aside from the signing of the papers to make everything legal (Loki had been visiting Earth often enough to pretty much have a legal identity already), they decided to have a hand-fasting ceremony. Great was their surprise when none other than the Ancient One arrived and offered to officiate the ceremony (Stephen had been studying such ceremonies and was willing to lead it, even if he wasn't a priest in any possible sense).

"I was a priestess, long before I was a sorceress." The Ancient One said simply.

It was obvious there was more to it than that. Never mind that, if they were really seen as 'Lost' or 'Rogues' by the Order, none of them should be having any communication with them. They'd known that even before they made their choice to walk out that day. For the Ancient One to not only visit them, but to actually officiate Joyce's wedding… it sent a message out.

While the Ancient Vows were enough to make them magically married, the hand-fasting was something that just felt right. The surprise just grew as Karl and Wong, Stephen's and Joy's closest friends (and former Masters) from the Order, dropped by too for the ceremony. It was more than Joy could have ever imagined.

Helena too was there, and she'd brought presents! A casket with several bottles of elven wine. Tony became very excited the moment he laid eyes on them.

"You should be very careful with that Tony." Joyce informed him, even without seeing him, she could sense his excitement. "Elven wine is sweet, like iced wine here on Earth, but as alcoholic as some of the strongest alcoholic beverages you may find. You won't taste the alcohol, you may not even feel it at first, but once it hits you… I can also promise you that no 'hangover cure' available for humans will work."

She had a very strong memory of one time she (as Tinúviel), Loki and a couple of their dearest friends from so long ago had shared a bottle one night. With war practically at their doorstep, they needed a night to distract themselves. Kontar had been more than a little arrogant, sure there was no drink too strong for him. Sharifa and Tinúviel had laughed long and hard when they watched him make a fool of himself after a few drinks; and even more so the next morning, when he kept moaning his pain. It was a bittersweet memory, considering the war and how their dear friends were lost to them before the end (those two were the first people Tinúviel truly grieved, after her sister and mother when she was a child).

Helena was there for the wedding too, she offered a second toast to the happy couple. She was so infinitely happy, having gotten her parents back, and with the Avengers and co. knowing the truth she could be herself in the Tower (and in the flat). It was the most freedom of self that she'd had since her mother's death.

Joyce was relatively certain that her daughter had been so happy she hadn't kept count of her own drinks as much as she should have. She could think of no other reason why Helena would decide all of a sudden to throw caution to the wind, walk straight to Stephen and kiss him straight on the mouth without so much as a word!

It was only until sometime later that Joyce learned Helena had been hoping that the kiss would bring back her match, just like it had brought back her Mama's… It hadn't worked, not really. But Stephen found Helena interesting, as well as gorgeous, and he decided he was very interested in dating her (it wouldn't take them long before she pretty much moved in with him; though it would take them close to a year before they were ready to admit, both to themselves and to each other that they were fully committed to their relationship and bring marriage into the equation).

Tony pestered Fury regarding Loki's scepter until the Director admitted he had no idea where the thing was. Only knew it wasn't where it was supposed to be. Also, apparently in his search for it he'd begun finding things he didn't like, a trail of something… he didn't tell Tony what it was, just that he'd be off grid while he investigated the matter.

It all came to a head early on 2016 when the Ancient One unexpectedly dropped on the Stranges in their flat. All three siblings still lived there together, with their respective beloveds (Donna and Christine had finally married a few weeks earlier, a very simple thing in City Hall, with just their family and less than a handful of friends).

"What's happened?" Stephen was the first to ask.

They all knew the Ancient One wasn't the kind of person to drop by just because.

"It's not about what's happened, but what's coming." The Sorceress Supreme said in return.

And so she told them: about SHIELD, about HYDRA, Project Insight, Operations Paperclip and Oversight. So many things intersecting in so many ways forming a very complex web, one that was encircling basically the whole world, and threatening to destroy everything they knew. The moment she was finished the Ancient One was ready to leave, but Stephen stopped her.

"Why?" The question sounded simple, but carried so much: Why was she there? Why tell them anything? Why right then?

"Because you were right in some things that you said that day." No one needed her to clarify what day exactly. "We have the power and thus it's our responsibility to protect those who don't. We sorcerers… we're so entrenched in our ways, the old ways. From the day we start our studies we effectively sequester ourselves, until the world outside our walls, the world concerning anything that isn't magic, becomes practically irrelevant to us. That's how we are, how we've always been. We just don't know any other way to live." She exhaled. "But you and your sister… you are different. You refused to let go of your past, of your family. And that works for you. But it might not work for everyone."

"It's not like we're expecting you all to open all your doors and join the world, we know most sorcerers wouldn't know how to do it." Joyce shook her head. "It's not about them, all of you, having to live in the world. We just want you to acknowledge it exists. That the world, the people matter, with or without magic."

The Ancient One nodded but she said nothing else. Just opened a portal and left.

"So… what do we do now?" Christine asked quietly.

"We make some calls, get the information to the right people." Stephen announced as he pulled out his phone to begin doing just that.

"And then?" Donna pushed.

"Then we get ready and focus on saving as many lives as we can." Joyce added, calling her own phone to her hand.

The two women turned to look at each other, a silent conversation in just one look, and they nodded, turning back to the siblings.

"Count us in." Donna spoke for both of them.

**xXx**

Once it all began, everything happened very fast. Fury looking into the missing scepter had sent the ball rolling, it was what first made the Director notice that something was very wrong at the core of his organization. From there things just kept growing more and more tense until it all snapped. HYDRA sent the Winter Soldier after the Director. What they didn't realize was how much their enemies knew already of what was coming. Fury wasn't alone when the legendary assassin (long believed to be a ghost, or an urban legend) went after him. Between Rogers and his girlfriend, Agent Carter (and a sedative bio-engineered specifically for a super-soldier) they managed to bring him in. Then they discovered that the assassin was, in fact, none other than the long-believed-to-be-dead Sergeant James 'Bucky' Barnes. If the mere fact that it was HYDRA hadn't been enough, that certainly made Rogers want to make their enemies burn…

Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton and Fury himself went after Pierce, before using him to reveal HYDRA and its lackeys all over the world (with Darcy and a team of the best hackers in the world ensuring that nothing about the loyal SHIELD Agents would be revealed, the last thing they needed was to endanger good people). Tony Stark, after crowing about how it paid to be a paranoid-son-of-a-bitch used the backdoor he'd taken to creating into all his tech to ensure that no matter what anyone did, the three helicarriers would never be taking off. Thus neutralizing the active part of Project Insight (the rest JARVIS took care of through the web).

All in all, things went better than any of them could have expected.

And time kept passing by…

The third time a sorcerer dropped by unexpectedly to visit the siblings was also a surprise, though not exactly a nice one.

"Kaecilius…" Stephen pronounced the man's name slowly, all while trying to think of the best way to deal with the problem.

Even if they hadn't exactly been in close contact with the Order the explosion in London hours earlier had made international news. And while the authorities might not yet know why exactly that particular townhouse had blown up to kingdom come, the two sorcerers had a very good idea. Which was exactly why Joyce had decided to ignore so-called traditions (not like it'd be the first time) and go to the NY Sanctum. See what they knew, if there was any way they could help. Stephen had decided to head to his flat to wait either for her and Loki's return, or for them to phone him and tell him where to go. Helena had had to leave earlier for Helheim to make sure that the sudden influx of souls wouldn't cause chaos. While Donna and Christine had a shift at Metro. All those absences he was very grateful for as he saw his unexpected visitor sitting on a chair in the small dining table. Stephen's reaction was instinctive as he moved a hand to reach inside his coat.

"None of that." Kaecilius made a gesture.

A zealot was suddenly beside Stephen, taking the sling ring before he could reach it.

A very discreet gesture from him kept Levi from shifting into her real form (Loki had helped him create a spell that turned the Cloak of Levitation into a normal looking long coat, which allowed him to wear it everywhere). He didn't want to know how Kaecilius would react to something like that, either against him or Levi.

"Be at ease, Doctor," The Rogue Sorcerer mocked the title Stephen had insisted on keeping even while he hadn't been practicing. "We're just here to talk."

"Are you?" Stephen just couldn't help the snark, even with his life on the line he would never be able to be anything else but himself (something that at times drove his sisters crazy but they'd all had to learn to live with it, it was just who he was). "About what exactly?"

"What's coming." Kaecilius replied cryptically. "It has always been meant to be. Even if some tried inordinately hard to stop it. It cannot be stopped."

"I don't know if it's the time you've been away from the Order, or the time I have been away, but I have no idea what the hell you're talking about Kaecilius." Stephen retorted.

That wasn't exactly true though. He had some idea. Only his idea was so absolutely insane he kept telling himself it couldn't possibly be that, because Kaecilius wasn't that… that deranged, was he? Stephen just wasn't sure anymore. Kaecilius might have never been his favorite person but he just… he didn't look fully human anymore. There was something very wrong about the shadows underneath his eyes, and in them…

"It's the end and the beginning." Kaecilius elaborated, very dramatically. "The many becoming the few, becoming the One."

Which meant that yes, Kaecilius really had become that deranged, Stephen couldn't believe, didn't want to believe it. But the truth was staring him in the face (quite literally) and his mind began working overtime, trying to find a solution before it was too late.

"You are a doctor, Stephen, a scientist." Kaecilius continued. "You understand the laws of nature. All things age. All things die. In the end, our sun burns out, our universe grows cold and perishes. But the Dark Dimension… it's a place beyond time."

Yes, it was a place beyond time (there was a reason ancient races called it the Timeless Abyss)… but it was also beyond space, life, death. Nothing truly existed there, nothing that had ever been or could ever be alive, with life as they knew it. And either Kaecilius had failed to understand that, or he was simply so far gone he no longer cared. Stephen wasn't sure which one would be worse; though it made no difference in the end. The Rogue needed to be stopped.

"This world doesn't have to die, Stephen." And Kaecilius just kept talking. "This world can take its rightful place among so many others, as part of the One. The great and beautiful One. And we can all live forever."

"Really?" Stephen forced himself to ask, to buy time as he tried to come up with the best possible plan (most of his ideas were too insane even for him). "What do you have to gain out of this New Age dimensional utopia?"

"The same as you. The same as everyone." Kaecilius said simply "Life. Eternal life. People think in terms of good and evil, but really, time is the true enemy of us all. Time kills everything."

"What about the people you killed?" Stephen demanded, because he just couldn't stop himself, all those in London… and all he might yet kill!

"Tiny, momentary specks within an indifferent universe." Kaecilius shrugged.

Stephen could have hit him right then, he really wanted to. How could the man be so callous? So dismissive of innocent lives?!

"The world is not what it ought to be." The deranged Sorcerer went on. "Humanity longs for the eternal, for a world beyond time, because time is what enslaves us. Time is an insult. Death is an insult. Stephen… We don't seek to rule this world. We seek to save it, to hand it over to Dormammu, who is the intent of all evolution, the Why of all existence."

"The Sorcerer Supreme defends existence." Stephen retorted, because, really, what was it the man thought he knew of Dormammu? Because it certainly didn't fit with what Stephen knew!

"What was it that took you to Kamar-Taj Stephen, do you remember? It wasn't enlightenment, nor was it power. You went to be healed, as did we all. Kamar-Taj is a place that collects broken things. We all go with the promise of being healed, but instead, the Ancient One gives us parlor tricks. The real magic she keeps for herself. Have you ever wondered how she's managed to live this long?"

"I saw the rituals in the book of Cagliostro." Stephen saw no point in hiding that.

He'd seen the rituals. He'd also talked (more like argued) about his discovery with the Ancient One, not long before his and Joyce's departure; less than a week before the invasion, in fact. He hadn't even done it for himself, truth was, Stephen cared very little about the Ancient One's personal choices as long as they didn't endanger those she was supposed to be protecting. But he did worry about how others would react when the truth came out (and the truth always, always comes out), people like Karl.

"So, you know." Kaecilius honestly seemed to believe he was swaying Stephen to his side. "The ritual gives me the power to overthrow the Ancient One and tear her Sanctums down, to let the Dark Dimension in. Because what the Ancient One hoards, Dormammu gives freely. Life, everlasting. He is not the destroyer of worlds, Stephen, he is the savior of worlds."

"You are insane." Stephen finally spat out, with all the poison he was capable of.

"What…?" Kaecilius cocked his head to a side in disbelief.

The Rogue clearly hadn't seen that one coming, which Stephen thought was insane in and of itself. Hadn't the man gotten the memo when he asked Stephen to follow him, the day he left Kamar-Taj and Stephen told him no? Did he think that just before Stephen had chosen to leave the Order that meant he'd changed his mind?

"You're insane." The Doctor repeated. "Dormammu doesn't give life, he cannot, because just like there is no time, there's also no life in the Dark Dimension. The reason that there is no death, is because there's no life either. Which means that bringing the Dark Dimension here, it wouldn't kill everyone, it would obliterate us, erase us from existence entirely. Which is why I think you're insane. Because it's either that or you've managed to surpass even the worst psychopaths in history with your deranged plan! You want to cause the end of everything and call it salvation?! Are you even listening to yourself Kaecilius?!"

"I am, though I can see that you're the one who refuses to listen." Kaecilius shook his head in a crazy parody of sadness. "It's very regretful but I suppose we will have to…"

Stephen never knew what they'd 'have to', though he'd a feeling where they were heading and was bracing himself for a fight, when a voice in the distance, approaching, interrupted them.

"Stephen…?" It was Joyce. "Are you home?"

It took Stephen less than two seconds to realize what was going on: the privacy wards had been activated, which meant that Joyce couldn't feel inside the flat. She was calling because Stephen was supposed to be there, though she wanted to be sure, and she hadn't noticed the others because their auras couldn't currently be felt outside the flat.

"If I cannot persuade you Stephen, perhaps she can…" Kaecilius muttered as he turned towards the front-door.

Stephen could only be thankful through all his crazy speeches it had never occurred to the Rogue to wonder why exactly Stephen had headed to the very spot where he had, when entering the flat. After Loki had moved in they'd set up a very specific 'security system'. The Privacy Ward had already been in place before that, something the siblings had adapted from the ones that were used in both Kamar-Taj and the Sanctums; it had two levels, one for magic and the other for soundproofing (it was clear that only the former was active then, otherwise they wouldn't have been able to hear Joyce). Loki, for his part, had set up a ward that would shield them from evil. The problem, as they'd discovered, was that the Mystic Arts weren't fully compatible with Loki's kind of magic (which explained how Kaecilius and his zealots had managed to bypass those wards and gotten into the flat; then again, the wards were only truly active when someone was present, as they had to draw magic from the inhabitants in order to be at full strength; the sorcerers had arrived when there was no one home).

The spot Stephen had headed for was a column at the end of the half-wall that separated the common areas of the flat, from the hallway that lead to the three bedrooms. A rune had been carved in a specific spot of that column, a sort-of last-resort. Having tightened his fists so hard that his nails bit into his palms enough to draw a few drops of blood Stephen took advantage of that to trace the rune with his blood.

"What the… Stephen!" Joyce screamed from outside as she realized what he'd just done.

That measure couldn't be activated by accident, so she knew something was very wrong if he'd decided to do that.

"What did you just do?!" One of the zealots demanded savagely.

She waved a hand to conjure a weapon against him, but it was useless, there was no weapon, not even the smallest spark of magic forthcoming.

It was almost like a Faraday Cage, except for magic. It was something he, Joyce, Loki and Helena had designed together. The flat had effectively become a black-hole where the Mystic Arts were concerned. Even most of Loki's and Helena's magic would be snuffed out before it could be used were they to try it when it was activated.

What Stephen didn't know when he activated the 'cage' was how far Kaecilius was already, how deeply entrenched into Dormammu, and because that creature was from beyond their universe, its power couldn't be stopped by their ward. Usually it would have been no trouble, they had a shield in place, that was what the Sanctums were for… except London's had fallen and (the other part Stephen hadn't known) NY had been attacked less than an hour earlier. The Ancient One, Mordo, Wong and a handful of others had been capable to keep the place standing, but just barely, and they'd lost quite a few good sorcerers. Still, while the Sanctum remained, the shield had been weakened enough for Kaecilius to draw on the power the rituals granted him already. More power than Stephen was expected, and of a kind they'd never planned for. It clashed with the ward unexpectedly… explosively.

"Joyce run!" Stephen screamed at the top of his lungs.

It was instinctive to him, as he threw himself to the nearest shadows, willing the Paths to open for him… a fraction of a second before the flat effectively blew up.

**xXx**

When the siblings chose to buy that particular penthouse flat upon moving to NY it was less because it was the penthouse (show of money and status) and more because it was close to both their work-places and it was the only place where they could all live comfortably together and still be in the area. It ended up being a good thing when it exploded. The explosion went a bit to the sides, but mostly up. The place was destroyed almost entirely, but the rest of the building remained perfectly alright, which meant no one else was affected.

Stephen though didn't get the chance to contemplate any of that until he finally woke up about two days later in his old room in the NY Sanctum.

"Uh…?" He groaned at the pain that thankfully seemed to be caused more from stiffness than any terrible wounds.

"You're extremely fortunate, you know?" Donna asked straight out, perhaps a bit more coldly than entirely necessary.

"No doubt about that." Stephen agreed wholeheartedly.

It was until he went to move that he noticed the body holding onto him. It was his lover.

"Try not to wake her up." Donna told him quietly. "She's hardly slept the past couple of days, Worrying about you."

She proceeded to explain how Joyce had managed to pretty much do the same as him and drop into the Shadow Plane to escape the explosion entirely. Stephen had lost consciousness before he was even fully in, due to the concussive blast that was part of the explosion. Still, his magic took what he considered safe and delivered him to the NY Sanctum's foyer, where the others found him eventually.

They had already dealt with the insurance. Officially there had been some kind of gas leak (not that they'd ever be able to prove otherwise, as there was basically nothing left of the flat). A friend of Joyce's from the legal firm had helped them make sure everything was in order. They'd all been staying in the Sanctum at the Ancient One's insistence (and since none except Loki had any other place to go… though Tony had offered them a floor to move into once they were all fully recovered).

Kaecilius and his zealots were dead. Because when Donna said there was nothing left of the flat she'd meant that literally. While the structure itself of the place had mostly survived (aside from the windows which all shattered into so fine pieces that nothing more than dust ever touched the ground at street-level), everything inside, from furniture to appliances, clothes, everything had been practically vaporized.

"It was… cataclysmic." Donna eventually stated. "And everyone's quite sure that if it weren't for Loki's ward it would have affected a lot more than our flat."

Stephen did his best not to think about his things, their things; furniture, clothes, knick-knacks, everything they had just lost. It was awful but, at the same time, they were just things. They were alive… also, Kaecilius and his zealots were gone, which meant Earth was safe from Dormammu. The Order would get the chance to rebuild, to keep everyone safe. They could always buy new clothes and everything else. Lives? Those couldn't be bought. There was just one thing that was still bothering him though, and it bothered him a lot.

"Joyce came here before going home, why did they let her go?" Stephen wanted to know. "If Kaecilius had already attacked them, they must have known there was danger. Why did they let her go home?"

"Because I didn't know Kaecilius had gone looking for you." The Ancient One informed him, standing at the door.

"What…?" Stephen didn't understand.

He knew her to be clairvoyant to some degree. And they all must have been very focused on Kaecilius with the danger he was set on bringing to the planet, so how could she not have known what he was going to do?! The Sorceress Supreme seemed to be able to almost read his mind (or at least his expression) for she answered the unasked question:

"Aside from a very specific night, shortly before the two of you left us, I have never been able to see the future where Joyce Byrd is concerned." The Ancient One informed him.

Stephen blinked. Did that mean…? What was that supposed to mean?!

"There's something about her, it might be her bond to Loki Odinson, or the true nature of her soul… she's more than human, a lot more." The Old Sorceress explained. "As are you for that matter. But you, for the most part you have been anchored to this world, far more than she ever was. Truth be told, I saw you coming, years before you ever appeared in Kamar-Taj, except I saw a different version of you, and I never saw her… that's why I was so confused. Joyce Byrd changed fate simply by existing."

"For the better I'm sure." Donna stated defensively.

"That's something we'll never know." The Ancient One stated with a shrug. "But then again, we're not meant to."

Stephen couldn't help but think a bit on what she'd just said. How she'd seen him go to Kamar-Taj, but another version of himself, and without his sister… he remembered Kaecilius's words about Kamar-Taj collecting broken things. He'd gone to that place not for himself but for Joyce, to find a cure for her blindness (which they never did). He didn't even want to imagine what might have brought him (in another time, another world) to that place, on his own, what might have happened to him to make him undertake such a journey for himself. Also, if Joyce hadn't been there, who would have saved Donna all those years ago, the night of the accident? He cut off his line of thought right there because that was the kind of life he did not wish to contemplate any longer. And he had no need to, really. That wasn't his life. It might have been in another universe, but not in the one he lived in (and he had enough with his own life).

Stephen went back to sleep (this time actual, normal sleep rather than the unconsciousness that came with either injury or sickness) shortly after his conversation with the Ancient One. Donna had checked his vitals once very carefully before feeling satisfied that he wouldn't drop dead at any moment; apparently things had been really bad the first day or so, even with Levi doing her best to push him into the shadows faster, he'd still gotten a pretty bad knock to the head and some burns, Joyce had seen to him, helped heal him using some kind of magic no one in the Order seemed to understand (According to her it was a gift from the stars, she was a blessed healer, could heal even the most grievous wounds if she got there on time and had enough energy, though the more delicate work, like where it came to nerves, was beyond her). Healing the way she did, it went against almost everything the Mystic Order believed, though at the same time it didn't change that there were limits. Joyce had been able to heal Stephen's burns, cuts and bruises but she still couldn't regain her sight (not that she'd have tried, he knew, not with the risks that might have meant for their sister), and she couldn't have healed Pangborn.

So Stephen curled his body a bit around his match (Helena was his match, he was ready to accept it, finally; and he was very happy that he'd taken to keeping the ring on him at all times, trying to find the right time to pop the question, it meant it was safe…) and went to sleep. When he did so he dreamt, dreams very different from any he might have had before. He saw himself stand in his flat alone; the most successful neurosurgeon, acting like an asshole to pretty much everyone; dating Christine, and making a mess of both her and him; a car accident, because he was an idiot (and always, so terribly alone); saw himself reaching Kamar-Taj a broken man (and it wasn't just because of his hands); saw time passing, training, some friendships that were the same and others different; he was pushed into fighting when he didn't want to, when he hadn't yet understood the necessity of it; an amulet holding a shining green jewel he'd never seen; saw a terrible battle in Hong Kong, the Dark Dimension, Dormammu, and bargaining… and the end of… so much.

Stephen sat up in bed abruptly, panting, his mind firing every which way as he fought to focus on what was real and what was a dream (for him it was a dream, but for another version of him…).

"Stephen!" Helena cried out, very worried for him, the barest touch of her hand on his arm.

He turned towards her then, and it was as if he were seeing her for the very first time. She had been in the dream too, always there, like an invisible guardian angel, one it took him (or the other him, more like) longer to see, though unlike Stephen himself, the Other knew the truth almost from the moment he was aware of her.

"Elaine…" He breathed out, not fully aware of the word-choice.

Helena's light-green eyes widened, even as tears began gathering on her lashes.

"Stephanos…?" She asked, a mix of nervousness, hesitation, hope and so much love…

"Oh cariad (beloved)…" He breathed out before drawing her face to his and kissing her softly, tenderly, but with so much feeling.

His magic acted without him needing to focus too much on it and soon there was a small black box in his hand, just in time for him to pull away from his match (necessary as they both still needed to breathe); and he took the opportunity to present her with the opened box.

"Steph… oh…" Helena was absolutely speechless.

She had hoped of course. Helena had loved Stephen from the moment she looked into his eyes and recognized the soul of her match in them. It was why she allowed herself to drink just enough to get the courage to go ahead and kiss him when they'd hardly even been introduced! And when that didn't work, when there was still no recognition in his eyes after that, it hurt; but at the same time, he'd answered the kiss and that gave her hope. Hope that turned into absolute elation as she saw that ring, and him before her, and the way his blue-green-gold eyes shone as they looked into her own light-green ones…

There was no need for any questions, or any answers, for any words at all, they just knew. All Helena had to do was extended her left hand and allow him to slip the ring onto the right finger. It was beautiful, a band that was formed by a double love-knot in a mix of white and yellow gold with a single clear diamond in the middle. They kissed again, more deeply than before, the moment the ring was in place.

"You remember…?" She asked softly when they drew back.

Stephen's expression turned grim after he remembered what he'd seen in dreams. While getting Elaine back, completely, might have been the best part of it, there had been quite a lot that he hadn't enjoyed not at all. But he wouldn't lie to his match, and he wouldn't hide things from her. So he told her the truth. They came to an agreement by the time they got up. There were some things from that dream that no one else needed to know (Donna didn't need to know what Stephen became in a world where he didn't have her, or Joyce; Christine didn't need to know the mess he made of both of them, or how there was one universe, possibly more, where the love of her life died years before they could ever meet). There had been so much wrong in that universe, that regardless of the difficulties of his own life Stephen couldn't help but be thankful for the life he lived. A part of him couldn't help but wonder if it was really all because of Joyce (she seemed to be at the start of the changes, in the other universe their family had never taken her in, and everything just seemed to snowball from that). And even as he thought about that, he couldn't help but fist his hands for a second, before consciously opening them and looking at them again; at his tanned, scar-less hands. Another part also couldn't help but remember a certain someone walking away, a friendship, a brotherhood lost, possibly forever…

**xXx**

Stephen and Joyce rejoined the Order following the confrontation with Kaecilius and his zealots. It wasn't something that anyone ever made a great deal about, it just happened. During their stay at the Sanctum as Stephen recovered the two began getting involved again in the comings and goings of the Order. Some of the other sorceress looked at them oddly for the first few days, but when the Ancient One, Mordo and later on other Masters not only didn't complain about it, but welcomed them and their involvement, everyone else followed suit.

Tony had been true to his word and they had a floor in Avengers Tower. Even then, Joyce and Stephen took turns staying there or in their rooms in the Sanctum (their matches following without complaint). Donna and Christine for their part had used their part of the money from the insurance on the old flat to purchase a new one just for the two of them, as close to the hospital as they could get. It wasn't as luxurious as the penthouse they'd lived in before, but then again, Stephen was the one with expensive tastes, not them.

When the rumors began that the Ancient One was making preparations for stepping down, that she'd chosen a successor; Stephen wasn't surprised. He'd seen it coming a long way, before Joy and he left, in fact. What did surprise him was when Karl went to see him the day before the ceremony was to take place.

"You were right." Were Karl's opening words.

"Well, I usually am, but about what exactly?" Stephen said in a drawl.

He was trying for levity, and failed abysmally, but by now Karl knew him well enough to know why he'd said that and didn't take offense.

"I had a serious, apparently very overdue talk with the Ancient One today." Karl stated grimly. "Those things you said to me just days before you left, about the things I refused to see… you were right. She isn't who I thought she was."

"Ah…" Stephen remembered then.

He'd never actually said anything straight out. After reading the Book of Cagliostro, even without the pages that held the Ritual itself, he'd been able to extrapolate enough not just to understand the insanity of what Kaecilius was planning, but also how it all fit with the Ancient One herself. He had confronted her on it, not so much for himself, but he'd understood even then what that information might one day do to Karl. The man had been through so much (Stephen might not know everything, but he knew enough), he'd lost everything once, his life left in ruins, and then he'd rebuilt it, rebuilt himself, around the Ancient One and her teachings. It would destroy him to learn that she broke the laws she insisted were so important. The Ancient One had said she'd handle it on her own time; and she had. Though Stephen still thought it was crazy for her to have waited so long; what if she had died? What if Kaecilius had killed her? What that might have done to Karl…

"She's complicated." Stephen shrugged, not knowing what else to do. "And it isn't quite as simple as you'd like it to be. I'm sure she must have told you that already."

"She did, I'm still not sure I believe her." Karl admitted.

"Why did you come to me Karl?" Stephen really didn't understand that. "Is it because I'm as guilty as she is of breaking the natural laws? And Joyce? Because I'm never going to apologize for doing what was necessary to survive. And if you think I will ever regret Joyce's actions… we might all regret the loss of her sight, but it's because of her that Donna is alive!"

"The Dark Dimension is volatile, dangerous. What if it overtook her? She taught us it was forbidden, while she drew on its power to steal centuries of life."

"She did what she thought was right. Just like I did, like we all did. Sometimes tough choices need to be made, and we make them."

"And what about when the bill comes due?"

"What about it?"

"Don't you see? Her transgressions led the zealots to Dormammu. Kaecilius was her fault. And you saw what happened. You were there. You almost died. And what would have come next. If they'd managed to destroy the Sanctums…"

"The bill comes due, I will not deny that. But Karl, what makes you think that Kaecilius was on her? Did you tell her that?" Stephen shook his head. "Kaecilius was his own person. He made his choices. You cannot even say that it was because of what she did. I knew what she'd done but that doesn't mean I did the same, I chose differently. Kaecilius was in the same position. And he chose to do the stupid thing! But it was still his choice, not hers!"

"So what? She's been breaking the natural laws for centuries and that's it? No payment?"

"Who says there was no payment? Tell me Karl, if you had just met Joyce, blind as she is, and had never heard about our family, about Donna, about her accident. Would it have ever occurred to you that her blindness was the price paid for saving our sister's life? Of course not! That you don't know what the Ancient One has paid, doesn't mean there wasn't something. Just that you don't know her as well as you thought you did."

Karl clearly had no response for that. Stephen was going to stop there, to let him make his own mind. But the memory of Karl that day (in another time, another universe) in Hong Kong, walking away (from the Order, from Stephen)… changed his mind.

"I had a dream the other night, shortly after the confrontation with Kaecilius in fact." Stephen was hesitant as he began, but the more he talked, the more he believed what he was doing wasn't just the right thing, it was necessary.

He told Karl everything he could remember (some things he'd seen in the dream, others he'd just known, as if the knowledge had flown into him to make the brief moments he 'lived through' actually make sense) from that universe: from their first meeting when Karl saved him from the muggers, Stephen broken in a way that he never had been in their current universe; his time in Kamar-Taj, under first Mordo's and then the Ancient One's tutelage, their arguments, and their trust. It didn't matter that they'd just tore into each other verbally, that Stephen hadn't yet had long enough to accept that sometimes it was necessary to fight and even to kill, they'd never hesitated to follow the other into battle. The fight in New York, where the Ancient One had died; and then the one in Hong Kong, where Stephen had used the Eye of Agamotto to break the natural laws to save thousands of lives, to keep Dormammu out of the world, when he'd gone into the Dark Dimension to bargain… and when Karl decided he would follow that path no longer and walked away.

At first Stephen wasn't sure which part Karl was going to focus more on, he seemed to be quite aghast over several, though it eventually came out:

"I left…?" He shook his head violently. "I walked away knowing what you had done, the price you had paid to keep Dormammu away forever?!"

"You didn't know." Stephen shook his head quietly.

"I didn't… why?!" Karl didn't understand.

"I think… after everything that had happened, I thought you needed time away, time to grieve and come to terms with everything you'd learned, about the Ancient One, about the Order, more than you needed a reason to stay." Stephen admitted.

"I… what happened after that?"

"I don't know. My dream ended there. I think that by that point the changes were too many, the universes too different, so there was probably no point to see anymore. It just wasn't relevant."

Yet somehow everything up to then had been relevant. Despite the serious differences. Stephen couldn't help but wonder if maybe Karl was the reason why. Maybe his other self had made a mistake, letting Karl go without telling him everything that had happened. Hopefully it was a mistake that he had a chance to correct later; but Stephen (this Stephen) had a chance to make things right in that moment. And it was a chance he wasn't going to ignore.

"I… it seems I have a lot to think on before tomorrow morning." Karl announced after a long, heavy silence.

"If you need me, I'm here." Stephen reassured him. "No matter what else might happen, I will always be your friend Karl."

**xXx**

In the morning Stephen was standing among the most respected Masters, on the courtyard of Kamar-Taj, one of the chosen witnesses as the Ancient One stepped down as Supreme Sorceress and Anointed her successor: Master Karl Mordo. The same ceremony where Karl named Stephen as Master of the New York Sanctum (they had been without one ever since Kaecilius killed the last master: Daniel Drumm, and it was high time someone took the post). Stephen was floored by it but immediately accepted. He might not have expected it, but there was no way he'd be letting his friend down.

In the evening a celebration took place in the New York Sanctum (organized mainly by a young, promising sorceress of Japanese-American descent Karl had been tutoring and convinced Stephen to take as his apprentice called Sachiko Nishimura), for both Karl and Stephen. It wasn't what Karl was used to, but Stephen had managed to talk him into staying at least for a while, especially when he told him Joyce would be singing (everyone loved hearing her sing). Joyce for her part didn't need her brother to say anything, she'd known already. In fact, there had been one song she'd had in mind for a while, it just never seemed like the right time for it, until that night…

"Please, don't let this feeling end

It's everything I am

Everything I want to be

I can see what's mine now

Finding out what's true

Since I found you

Looking through the eyes of love"

The moment the first notes on the piano were heard, everyone quieted down. It wasn't often that Joyce got to sing for the Order, and she hadn't done it since first leaving with her brother back in 2013, so it was truly a treat. Once the song actually began… that was when things got interesting.

No one saw Loki move, but suddenly he was standing beside the piano, eyes fixed straight on her, and while no one could ever forget that Joyce was blind, the way her head turned towards him immediately, unseeing eyes fixed straight on him, could almost make some people wonder.

"Now, I can take the time

I can see my life

As it comes up shining now

Reaching out to touch you

I can feel so much

Since I found you

Looking through the eyes of love"

As the second stanza came to an end and the melody shifted just slightly Helena joined the reincarnation of her mother on the piano bench, slowly taking over. No questions were asked, there was no need, Joyce extended her hand right in time for Loki to take it and a moment later they were on their feet, the rest of the sorcerers moving away to open some space for them to dance together even as she kept singing, never missing a word. And it was as if that, the two of them being together, somehow made the song, and the magic, all the more powerful as it resonated with everyone in the Sanctum (and, unknown to them, in many other places as well).

"And now, I do believe

That even in a storm we'll find some light

Knowing you're beside me, I'm all right"

"Please, don't let this feeling end

It might not come again

And I want to remember

How it feels to touch you

How I feel so much

Since I found you

Looking through the eyes of love"

Karl looked around the room, at his people. The people he'd sworn to lead and to protect, and together they'd all do their best to protect their world, and all worlds if at all possible. And as he stood there he realized that it didn't matter what choices other people might have made, only his, and he knew without a doubt that he'd made the right one. Even if the life he was living was one he could have never imagined, it wasn't one he could bring himself to regret either.

And then, as his eyes moved past Donna and Christine (they might not have been sorceresses, but they were family, Karl knew that now), they laid again on Joyce and Loki briefly as they danced in circles. He couldn't help but remember another person dancing: a young girl, not even fifteen years old, in a peasant blouse and a long flowing skirt, long dark hair falling in waves down her back and adorned by a simple white bow… his little gypsy. The last person he'd lost, and whose loss had so utterly broken him. Except… except she hadn't stayed lost, had she? He might have been blind to it for the longest time (either because he couldn't believe it, or just wasn't ready to see it) but she was right there, had been there for years, waiting for him…

"Sachiko…" He breathed out, so quiet he almost couldn't hear his own voice.

But she heard him, and when he raised his head to meet her dark eyes with his, she smiled at him.

"And now, I do believe

That even in a storm we'll find some light

Knowing you're beside me, I'm all right"

"Now, I can take the time

I can see my life

As it comes up shining now

Reaching out to touch you

I can feel so much

Since I found you

Looking through the eyes of love"

* * *

I like how this turned out. Like the idea that Stephen was meant or some things, regardless of how he got there (meant to be a Sorcerer, meant to find Helena, meant to be Karl's close friend). And on the Karl front... the ones who've read my Nightingale series, the main timeline, know what happens with Karl after he leaves in Hong Kong; I go into it in "Ethereal Gift", "Finite Harmony" and "Infinite Starlight". Here... I fear they're going to make him into a mere villain sooner or later in the MCU (villains don't satisfy me when they are given a good background but never given a chance to be more than mere villains... Killmonger deserved better in Black Panther, and so does Karl in Doctor Strange... I've tried to give it to them). Here... I honestly believe that Karl deserved a chance to know, to understand the prices that were paid, especially the price that Stephen paid for doing what he did. Which is why I did that twist. Hope you like it.

I'm waiting for opinions regarding that fic I mentioned for the Menel series. And am currently working on the final AU of this series (two more are written and being edited). We're approaching the end people!


End file.
